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THE CELEBRATION 



OF THE 



OF THE 

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TOWN OF DANVERS. 

MASSACHUSETTS, AS A SEPARATE 

MUNICIPALITY. 

JUNE 15, 16. 17, 1902. 

PRINTED BY VOTE OF THE TOWN, 1907. 



SAMUEL USHER 

176 TO 184 HIGH STREET 

BOSTON, MASS. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Prefatory Note 5 

Town Records relative to Celebration of Anniversary . . 7 

Vote Authorizing Celebration 7 

Appointment of Committee 8 

Appropriation Authorized 11 

Publication of Proceedings Authorized 12 

Records of the Celebration Committee 13 

Appointment of Sub-Committees 15 

Letter of Town Counsel concerning Appropriations 22 

Distribution of Appropriation 25 

Bills Approved 32 

Sub-Committee on Publication 35 

Program of the Celebration 36 

Sunday, June 15. 
Historical Discourses at the Several Churches. 

First Church. Sermon by Rev. H. C. Adams, Pastor 37 

Services at Baptist Church, Rev. C. S. Nightingale, Pastor ... 49 

Services at UniversaHst Church, Rev. Edson J. Reifsnider, Pastor, 50 

Maple Street Church. Sermon by Rev. Charles B. Rice .... 50 

Catholic Church. Sermon by Rev. Henry A. SulUvan, Pastor . . 66 

Episcopal Church. Sermon by Rev. Robert W. Hudgell, Rector 73 

Unitarian Church. Sermon by Rev. Alfred P. Putnam 77 

Methodist Church. Rev. George E. Sanderson, Pastor 103 

MoND.'VY, June 16. 

The Bonfire 103 

Services at the Peabody Institute 105 

Introductory Address, Rev. Charles B. Rice 106 

Historical Address, Ezra D. Hines, Esq 110 

Poem, Miss Josephine Roache 149 

The Banquet 152 

Letters from Invited Guests 154 

Addresses : 

Hon. Samuel L. Sawyer, Presiding Officer and Toastmaster . . 161 

Lieut.-Governor John L. Bates 161 

Hon. Samuel Cole, of Beverly 163 

Charles H. Goulding, Esq., of Peabody 164 

Mr. R. D. Bates 164 



4 Table of Contents. 

PAGE. 

Dr. W. W. Eaton 165 

Capt. C. H. Masury 166 

Mrs. I. E. Kenney 167 

Mr. A. P. Learoyd 171 

Hon. J. Frank Porter 171 

Mr. Charles H. Preston 172 

Mr. William M. Currier 174 

Mr. John E. Maguire 177 

Mr. John W. Porter 179 

Mr. William E. Putnam 181 

William B. Sullivan, Esq 183 

Daniel N. Crowley, Esq 192 

Mr. A. H. Paton 198 

Hon. Alden P. White 199 

Children's Entertainment 202 

Band Concerts 202 

The Ball 203 

Tuesday, June 17. 

The Parade 205 

The Decorations 210 

Sports 212 

Ball Games 213 

Balloon 213 

Band Concerts 214 

The Fireworks 215 

Newspaper Comments 217 

Valuation of the Town 221 

Population from Early Periods 222 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



The records of the action of the town in connection with 
this Anniversary are given in full. It has been the New Eng- 
land custom to deal at close range with all proposed public 
measures, leaving them to fare as they may in the face of 
objections and oppositions. From the earliest times in our 
town of Danvers this usage has been carried well toward its 
farthest limits. The disadvantages of the habit are largely 
in appearance only; its benefits in quickening the tone of 
public life are most real. If the movement in detail is not 
always smooth, its issues in their long continuance are most 
likely to be satisfactory. 

The sub-committee having this publication in charge have 
bestowed much care upon it. Whatever delays have oc- 
curred have been due to various causes, but chiefly to the 
difficulties connected with the carrying on together of a 
work of free will by a number of busy men and with no 
measure of time set for its certain ending. 

The valuable services of Major Frank C. Damon have been 
engaged for a short time in bringing together and arranging 
a portion of the materials of this publication. 



One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary 
of Danvers. 



TOWN RECORDS. 
(Frank C. Damon, Moderator.) 

Annual Meeting, March, 1901. 
Article 36. To see if the town will appoint a committee 
to take into consideration the matter of the observance of 
the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town and 
report at some adjournment the expediency of such a cele- 
bration and what further action is necessary, agreeably to 
the petition of Ezra D. Hines and others. 



March 4, 1901. 
Voted, that Article 36 be referred to a special committee of 
five to be appointed by the moderator; and Ezra D. Hines, 
C. H. Preston, C. B. Rice, Andrew Nichols, and Alfred Hutch- 
inson were appointed. 

Adjournment, March 19, 1901. 

The committee to whom was referred the matter of the 
celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the 
incorporation of the town made the following report: 

" We recommend that said celebration take place on June 
16, 1902, and would suggest the following program : A parade, 
exercises in the morning, including an historic address, to 
be followed by dinner with speeches, and with such other 
observances as shall be deemed fit and proper; and that the 
town appropriate $1,000, which sum, together with whatever 

7 



8 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

may be subscribed, shall be used for the expenses of said 
celebration. 

" To carry out the above, we recommend the appointment 
of a committee of twenty persons, representing the different 
parts of the town, who shall have full authority to make all 
necessary arrangements for the observance of said day." 

Voted, on motion of Charles H. Preston, that all of the 
report, except that part relating to the appropriation, be 
accepted and adopted. Seventeen voted yes and three, no. 

Voted, on motion of Charles H. Preston, that the committee 
of twenty be appointed by the moderator and that the mod- 
erator shall be one of the committee. 

The moderator then appointed Ezra D. Hines, William B. 
Sullivan, Thorndike P. Hawkes, Fred U. French, Charles B. 
Rice, M. H. Barry, J. F. Porter, Walter T. Creese, Charles H. 
Preston, Francis H. Caskin, Thomas E. Tinsley, Andrew 
Nichols, H. W. Mitchell, C. E. Dennett, H. H. Pillsbury, 
W. B. Gould, Alfred Hutchinson, J. M. Whittier, and D. N. 
Crowley. (Moderator, Frank C. Damon.) 

Annual Meeting, 1902. 

Article 32. To hear the report of the committee 
appointed at the last annual meeting of the town to make 
arrangements for the appropriate observance or celebration 
of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the corporate 
or separate existence of the town and to take any action 
thereon. 

Article 33. To see if the town will appropriate a sum not 
exceeding $3/)00 to meet the expenses of the proposed cele- 
bration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the 
town, the same to be expended under the direction of the 
Committee of Arrangements. 

Article 34. To see if the town will appropriate a sum not 
exceeding $1,000 for the publication in book form of the 
proceedings at the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth 



Town Records. 9 

anniversary, the book to be sold at cost, and the proceeds 
returned to the treasury of the town, and the said publication 
and sale to be under the direction of the Committee of Arrange- 
ments. 

March 10, 1902. 

Under Article 33, the Finance Committee recommended 
that $3,000 be appropriated to meet the expenses of the 
proposed celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniver- 
sary of the town, the same to be expended under the direc- 
tion of the Conmiittee of Arrangements. T, E. Dougherty 
moved as a second proposition that $1,500 be appropriated, 
and J. F. Putnam that $500 be appropriated. T. E. Dough- 
erty's receiving the largest number of votes went upon the 
ballot. 

Under Article 34 they recommended that $1,000 be appro- 
priated for the publication in book form of the proceedings 
of the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniver- 
sary, the books to be sold at cost and the proceeds returned 
to the treasury of the town, and the said publication and 
sale to be under the direction of the Committee of Arrange- 
ments. D. P. Pope offered as a second proposition to go upon 
the ballot that the proceeds received from the sale of the 
book be appropriated to pay for the same. 

March 26, 1902. 

The question, " Shall the town appropriate $3,000 to meet 
the expenses of the proposed celebration of the one hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary of the town? " not having the neces- 
sary two-thirds vote, was declared lost, 194 having voted 
yes. 

The question, " Shall the town appropriate $1,500 for said 
celebration? " not having received the necessary two-thirds 
vote, was declared lost, 96 having voted yes. 



10 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

The question, " Shall the town refuse to make any appro- 
priation for said celebration? " received 60 " yes " votes. 

The question, " Shall the town appropriate $1,000 for the 
publication in book form of the proceedings of the celebration 
of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, the book to be 
sold at cost, and the proceeds returned to the treasury of 
the town? " not having received the necessary two-thirds 
vote was declared lost, 127 having voted yes. 

The question, " Shall the town appropriate the proceeds 
received from the sale of said book to pay for the same? " 
not having received the necessary two-thirds vote, was 
declared lost, having received 121 " yes " votes. 

April 17, 1902. 

Article 2. To see if the town will appropriate $2,500 or 
any other sum to meet the expenses of the proposed celebra- 
tion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the cor- 
porate or separate existence of the town. 

Voted, to take up Article 2, and under said article the 
Finance Committee recommended that the town appropriate 
$2,500 to meet the expenses of the proposed celebration of 
the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the corporate 
or separate existence of the town. 

George Little moved as an alternative proposition to go 
upon the ballot that $1,500 be appropriated. 

T, E. Tinsley moved as an alternative proposition that 
$1.00 be appropriated. 

Mr. Little's proposition being put to vote received eight 
votes and Mr. Tinsley's received 130, and Mr. Tinsley's 
went upon the ballot. 

Article 3 being next considered, the Finance Committee 
reconamended under this article that the town authorize the 
publication in book form of the proceedings at the celebration 
of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary at a cost not to 
exceed $1,000, and appropriate the proceeds of the sale of 



Town Records. 11 

said books to pay for the same. No other proposition was 
offered under this subject. 

April 21, 1902. 

The question, " Shall the town appropriate $2,500 to meet 
the expenses of the proposed celebration of the one hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary of the corporate or separate exist- 
ence of the town? " received 360 "yes" votes and was de- 
clared carried. 

The proposition that $1.00 be appropriated received 38 
" yes " votes, and 128 voted that no appropriation be made. 

The question, " Shall the town authorize the publication in 
book form of the proceedings at the celebration of the one 
hundred and fiftieth anniversary, at a cost not to exceed 
$1,000, and appropriate the proceeds of the sale of said book 
to pay for the same? " was declared lost, 235 voting yes and 
233, no. 

October 3, 1902. 

Article 2. To hear and act upon the report of the com- 
mittee having in charge the celebration of the one hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary of the town's separate existence, or 
take any action thereon. 

Article 3. To see what disposition shall be made of the 
whole or any part of an unexpended balance of the money 
appropriated for the celebration of the one hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary of the town's existence, or take any action 
thereon. 

Article 4. To see if the town will appropriate a sum of 
money to publish a book of the doings of said celebration or 
any other means of collecting and preserving the records of 
the doings of said celebration. 

It was then voted, under Article 3, that the town instruct 
the General Committee on the celebration of the one hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary of the town to prepare a suitable 



12 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

badge for the chief marshal of the parade [William Penn 
Hussey] and that a sum not to exceed $50 be taken from the 
unexpended balance of the celebration fund for this purpose, 
27 voting yes and 1, no. 

Annual Meeting, 1904. 
Article 48. To see if the town will authorize the One Hun- 
dred and Fiftieth Anniversary Committee or some other person 
to publish in boolc form the proceedings of the celebration of 
said anniversary at an expense not exceeding $500, said 
book to be sold at cost, and the proceeds to pay for the same, 
agreeably to the petition of A. P. Learoyd and others. 

Adjournment, March 31, 1904. 

Under Article 48, the Finance Committee recommended that 
the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary Committee be au- 
thorized to publish in book form the proceedings of the cele- 
bration of said anniversary at an expense not exceeding 
$500, said book to be sold at cost, and the proceeds to pay 
for the same. 

A motion by W. B. Sullivan that the rules be suspended 
so that this matter could be settled at this meeting being put 
to vote was lost. The matter passed to ballot. 

Adjournment, April 18, 1904. 
The question, " Shall the town adopt the report of the 
Finance Committee? " under Article 49, which recommends 
that the town authorize the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anni- 
versary Committee or some other persons to publish in book 
form the proceedings of the celebration of such anniversary, 
at an expense not exceeding $500, said book to be sold at 
cost, and the proceeds to pay for the same, received 122 votes 
and was declared carried. Sixty-one votes were cast for no 
appropriation. 



RECORDS OF THE CELEBRATION COMMITTEE. 



At the annual town meeting held in March, 1901, under 
an article in the warrant, the following gentlemen were 
appointed a committee on the one hundred and fiftieth anni- 
versary of the town, by Frank C. Damon, the moderator: 

Ezra D, Hines, Willlvm B. Sullivan. 

Thorndike p. Hawkes. Fred U. French. 

Charles B. Rice. Michael H. Barry. 

J. Frank Porter. Walter T. Creese. 

Charles H. Preston. Francis H. Caskin. 

Thomas E. Tinsley. Andrew Nichols. 

Frank C. Damon. Daniel N. Crowley. 

Harry W. Mitchell. Clarence E. Dennett. 

Joseph M. Whittier. Harvey H. Pillsbury. 

W. B. Gould. Alfred Hutchinson. 

Danvers, September 24, 1901. 

First meeting of Committee on One Hundred and Fiftieth 
Anniversary Celebration at selectmen's room. Town Hall. 

Ezra D. Hines called the meeting to order. 

Rev. Charles B. Rice was elected chairman. William B. 
Sullivan was elected secretary. 

Voted to appoint Ezra D. Hines, Charles H. Preston, and 
Fred U. French a committee to consider a plan for the cele- 
bration and to report at the next meeting. 

Voted that when we adjourn it be to meet October 8 at 
7.30 P.M. 

Voted to adjourn. 

W. B. Sullivan, Secretary. 



13 



14 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Danvers, October 8, 1901. 

Second meeting of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Celebra- 
tion Committee. 

Rev. Charles B. Rice in the chair. Records read and 
approved. 

The committee appointed to consider plans for the celebra- 
tion reported as follows, which report was considered: 

Saturday, June 14, 1902, 8 p.m. Fires on the hills. 

Sunday, June 15, 1902. Commemoration exercises in all the 

churches. 
Monday, June 16, 1902, Bells at sunrise. 

10 A.M. Literary exercises: address, poem, music. 

1 P.M. Banquet, speeches. 

2 P.M. Children's entertainment. 
8 P.M. Band concert and ball. 

Tuesday, June 17, 1902. Bells at sunrise. 

10 A.M. Military, civic, and trades parade. 

2 P.M. Sports. 

4 P.M. Band concert. 

8 P.M. Band concert and fireworks. 

Voted to adopt report, leaving the order of exercises to be 
made hereafter. 

Voted to appoint Charles H. Preston a committee to secure 
the Salem Cadet Band for the two days. 

Voted that the chair appoint a committee to bring in a 
list of committees. D. N. Crowley, Fred U. French, T. P. 
Hawkes, Dr. H. W. Mitchell, and J. Frank Porter were 
appointed. 

Voted that when we adjourn it be to meet October 24, at 
7.30 P.M. 

Voted to adjourn. W. B. Sullivan, Secretary. 

Danvers, October 21, 1901. 
As a quorum was not present, no meeting was held and an 
adjournment was voted to November 4, 1901. 

W. B. Sullivan, Secretary. 



Records of the Celebration Committee. 15 

Danvers, November 4, 1901. 

Third meeting of One Hundred and Fiftieth Celebration 
Committee in selectmen's room. 

In the absence of Rev. Charles B. Rice, Mr. T. P. Hawkes 
was chosen chairman jyro tern. 

The committee appointed to report a list of committees 
reported as follows, which report was adopted : 

Fireworks, Illumination, Ringing Bells. 
Thomas E. Tinsley. John T. Carroll. 

Ernest Richardson. Alonzo G. Kimball. 

John H. J. Colcord. Mansel C. Lord. 

Elmer A. Bedell. James P. Barry. 

William A. Berry. Clarence E. Dennett. 

Frank W. Knight. 

Literary Exercises. 
Rev. Charles B. Rice. Ezra D. Hines. 

Daniel N. Crowley. William B. Sullivan. 

Rev. Chauncey J. Hawkins. Charles H. Preston. 
Rev. Edson Reifsnider. Samuel L. Sawyer. 

Rev. Kenneth E. Evans. Andrew H. Paton. 

Banquet. 
Fred U. French. Nathan T. Walcott. 

Granville W. Clapp. 

Children's Entertainment. 
Harvey H. Pillsbury. Walter A. Tapley. 

Daniel N. Crowley. 

Music. 
Charles H. Preston. Rev. Harry C. Adams. 

Frank W. Ross. Dr. Robert W. Hudgell. 

Herbert E. Wentworth. Amos F. Killam. 

Charles E. Perkins. John B. Mason. 

Dr. Arthur W. Harrington, Joseph W. Woodman. 

Dancing. 
Frank C. Damon. Wallace P. Hood. 

Lester S. Couch. Fred B. Woodbury. 

Walter P. Weston. Bertram P. Perley. 

Loren H. Roberts. Thomas E. Tinsley. 

A. Preston Chase. Benjamin E. Newhall. 



16 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 



Parade. 



Daniel N. Crowley. 
Harvey H. Pillsbury, 
Timothy D. Crowley. 
Ralph Wheelwright, 
John J. Macauley. 
Charles H. Masury. 



William Penn Hussey. 
Charles N. Perley. 
Horace G. Putnam. 
Andrew Elwell. 
Walter C. Dunnells. 
Marcus C. Pettingell. 



Dr. WiNSLOw W. Eaton. 



Printing. 



William B. Sullivan. 
Charles H. Shepherd. 
Oscar E. Jackson. 

WiNSOR C. NiCKERSON. 

Guy p. Pope. 
Andrew H. Paton. 



Frank E. Moynahan. 
George L, Merrill. 
Herbert J. Chase. 
Jasper Marsh. 
Charles R. Tapley. 
Francis H. Caskin. 



Sports. 
Thorndike p. Hawkes. Michael H. Barry. 

Wallace P. Putnam. Oscar H. Perkins. 

Dr. Harry W. Mitchell. 

Reception Committee. 



J. Frank Porter. 
Roswell D. Bates. 
Samuel L. Sawyer. 
Ezra D. Hines. 
Dr. Frederic W. Baldwin. 
Dr. Harry W. Mitchell. 
Fred U. French. 
Frank M. Spofford. 
Andrew Nichols. 
Ernest J. Powers. 
Francis Peabody. 
Godfrey Morse. 
George A. Peabody. 

Rev. Thomas 



Daniel P. Pope. 
Albert A. Bates. 
Addison P. Learoyd. 
Rev. Charles B. Rice. 
Daniel N. Crowley. 
Thorndike P. Hawes. 
Charles N. Perley. 
Alfred Hutchinson. 
A. Frank Welch. 
Gilbert A. Tapley. 



William C. 
Francis H. 
Walter K. 
E. Power. 



Endicott. 

Caskin. 

Bigelow. 



Samuel L. Sawyer. 



Transportation. 

James N. George. 

Treasurer. 
Addison P. Learoyd. 



Records of the Celebration Committee. 17 

Decorations. 
Joseph W. Whittier. Lester S. Couch. 

Blaney L. Alley. Willis' S. Smart. 

Samuel M. Moore. George B. Moulton. 

Frank P. Hayes. Frank O. Staples. 

John F. Kirby. Louis Brown. 

Ralph Wheelwright. Davis S. Brown. 

Harvey H. Pillsbury. 

Voted that the chairman of each conimittee have power 
to fill vacancies. 
Voted to adjourn to the first Monday of December. 

W. B. Sullivan, Secretary. 



Danvers, December 2, 1901. 

Fourth meeting of One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary 
Committee. 

Rev. Charles B. Rice in the chair. Records all read and 
approved. 

Voted that in the future five (5) members constitute a 
quormn. 

Daniel N. Crowley reported for the Committee on Parade. 

Voted to have the literary exercises on Monday, June 16, 
1902, and the parade on Tuesday, June 17, 1902. 

Mr. Charles B. Rice reported for the Literary Committee. 

Voted to ballot for choice of a person to give the historical 
address. Mr. Ezra D. Hines had four; Rev. Charles B. Rice 
had five. Mr. Rice declined and another vote was taken, 
and Ezra D. Hines was chosen unanimously. 

Voted that the literary exercises begin at 10 a.m. and the 
banquet at 1.30 p.m., June 16. 

Frank C. Damon reported for the Committee on Dancing. 

Voted to lay motion for fixing time of ball on the table. 

Thomas E. Tinsley reported for Committee on Fireworks, 
Illumination, and Ringing Bells. 



18 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Voted that the bonfire be Hghted at 12 a.m., Monday, 
June 16. 

Thorndike P. Hawkes reported for the Committee on Sports. 

Voted that each committee be asked to bring in an esthnate 
of its expenses. 

Voted to adjourn to December 16, 1901. 

W. B. Sullivan, Secretary. 

Danvers, December 16, 1901. 

Fifth meeting of the Committee on the Danvers One Hun- 
dred and Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration. 

In the absence of Mr. Rice, Charles H. Preston was chosen 
chairman pro tem. Mr. Rice came in later. 

Records read and approved. 

The following estimates of expense were made by the differ- 
ent committees: 

Fireworks, etc $1,000.00 

Banquet 

Printing 1,050.00 

Children's entertainment 200.00 

Music 580.00 

Parade 500.00 

Sports 350.00 

Reception committee 100.00 

Transportation 

Ball 

Decorations 500.00 

The clerk was asked to notify the chairman of each com- 
mittee that did not report to report at the next meetmg. 

Mr. Ezra D. Hines gave notice of the receipt of the invita- 
tion to give the historical address and his acceptance thereof. 

Voted to adjourn to meet December 30, at 7.30 p.m. 

W. B. Sullivan, Secretary. 



Records of the Celebration Committee. 19 

Danvers, December 30, 1901. 

Sixth meeting of the Danvers One Hundred and Fiftieth 
Anniversary Celebration Committee. 

Mr. Rice in the chair. Records read and approved. 

Mr. Damon reported for the Ball Committee that it would 
need an appropriation of $200. 

A letter was received from the Committee on Decorations 
that they would need $1,500 instead of $500 estimated. 

The chairman of the Committee on Banquet reported they 
were negotiating with caterers and hoped to get along without 
an appropriation. 

Moved that when we adjourn it be to meet m two weeks, 
and that each committee be requested to report its recom- 
mendation for its portion of the total appropriation in 
detail. Carried. 

Voted to adjourn. 

W. B. Sullivan, Secretary. 

Danvers, January 12, 1902. 
There were only four members present, so the meeting 
adjourned to January 22, 1902. 

Danvers, January 22, 1902. 

Seventh meeting of the General Committee on One Hun- 
dred and Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration. 

Mr. Rice in the chair. Records read and approved. 

Mr. Nichols reported for the Reception Committee that 
it would ask for $25 for the use of the committee. 

Moved that the Committee on Fireworks, Illumination, and 
Ringing Bells be restricted to $500 as its part of the appro- 
priation, which is to be asked for. Motion withdrawn. 

Voted to ask the town for $2,500 for the celebration and 
$1,000 extra for a book which is to be printed and contain an 
account of the celebration, the book to be sold by the town 
at cost. 



20 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Voted that the chairman be a committee to see that an 
article be put in the warrant for the next annual meeting for 
the appropriation above mentioned. 

Voted to adjourn to February 5, 1902. 

W. B. Sullivan, Secretary. 

Danvers, February 5, 1902. 

Eighth meeting of General Committee, Mr. Rice in the 
chair. 

T. E. Tinsley was chosen secretary pro tern. 

Moved to reconsider the vote whereby it was voted to ask 
the town for an appropriation of $2,500. The question, being 
put, was lost. 

Voted to ask the town for an appropriation not to exceed 
$3,000. 

Voted to adjourn to Wednesday, February 19. 

T. E. Tinsley, Secretary pro tem. 

Danvers, February 19, 1902. 
Ninth meeting of General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair. 
Moved to reconsider the vote whereby it was voted to ask 
for an appropriation not exceeding $3,000. Not carried. 
Voted to adjourn subject to the call of the chair. 

W. B. Sullivan, Secretary. 

Danvers, March 31, 1902. 

Tenth meeting of General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair. 

The chairman reported to the committee that the town at 
its annual meeting had failed to cast two-thirds vote for 
the article asking for $3,000, as petitioned for by the com- 
mittee. The town voted as follows : 

For $3,000 . . . .194 
For $1,500 .... 94 
No 59 



Records of the Celebration Committee. 21 

Voted to ask the town counsel for his opinion whether the 
town appropriated $3,000 or $1,500 at its annual meeting, 
and whether under the previous vote appointing this com- 
mittee the committee is authorized- to incur any expense 
that will bind the town. 

Voted to ask the town solicitor to give us his opinion on or 
before Friday evening at 7.30 p.m. 

Voted to adjourn when we adjourn to next Friday night, at 
7.30. 

Voted to ask the town solicitor as to the appropriation on 
the book. 

Voted to adjourn. 

W. B. Sullivan, Secretary. 



Letter to Town Solicitor. 



Danvers, Mass., April 1, 1904. 

To THE Town Solicitor, Danvers, Mass.: 

Sir, — The Committee on the Danvers One Hundred and Fiftieth 
Anniversary Celebration voted to ask for your opinion on the follow- 
ing questions relating to the celebration: 

1. Did the town appropriate $3,000 therefor at its last annual 
meeting? 

2. Did the town appropriate $1,500 therefor at its last annual 
meeting? 

3. Did the town make any appropriation for the publication of a 
book? 

4. Can a special meeting be held at which the town can appropriate 
money for this celebration? 

I will be obliged for an answer at your earliest convenience, so that 
I may have it at the next meeting of the committee, which is to be 
held Friday next, April 4, at 7.30 p.m. 

Yours very truly, 

W. B. Sullivan, 
Secretary, Celebration Committee. 



22 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Ernest J. Powers, Counsellor at Law. 

Salem, Mass., April 4, 1902. 

William B. Sullivan, Esq., Secretary of Committee on Danvers 
150th Anniversary Celebration, Danvers, Mass. : 

Dear Sir, — Your letter of April 1, submitting four propositions 
for an opinion, was received. 

As you well know, our unique method of voting on questions in- 
volving appropriation of money gives rise to many new and perplex- 
ing questions. I find nothing in the past decisions of our courts that 
will give me any assistance in answering the first three propositions, 
viz.: 

1. Did the town appropriate $3,000 for the anniversary celebration 
at its last annual meeting? 

2. Did the town appropriate $1,500 for the anniversary celebration 
at its last annual meeting? 

3. Did the town make any appropriation for the publication of a 
book? 

The question, " Shall the town appropriate $3,000 to meet the ex- 
penses of the proposed celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth 
anniversary of the town? " as recommended by the Finance Committee, 
received 194 "yes " votes and was declared lost. 

The question, " Shall the town appropriate $1,500 for said celebra- 
tion? " received 96, " yes " votes and was declared lost. 

The town's authority for appropriating money for the above purpose 
is derived from the Revised Laws, Chapter 25, the last part of Section 
18, which reads: "Any town may raise by taxation such amount of 
money as may be authorized by a two-thirds vote for the celebration 
of the anniversary of its settlement or of its incorporation at the end 
of a period of fifty or of any multiple of fifty years therefrom, and of 
publishing the proceedings thereof." 

On the proposition of raising money for the above purpose there 
were 350 votes, 194 in favor of $3,000, 96 in favor of $1,500, and 60 
for no appropriation. If the 96 votes for the $1,500 appropriation 
could be excluded in reckoning the whole number of votes cast, then 
the Finance Committee's report would have received the necessary 
two-thirds vote, but those who voted for the substitute proposition 
of $1,500 were evidently opposed to the $3,000 appropriation and 
voted against the $3,000 appropriation with as much certainty as any 
one of the sixty who recorded their vote against any appropriation. 
Those who voted for $3,000 were opposed to the appropriation of 



Records of the Celebration Committee. 23 

$1,500; therefore I thuik that the moderator properly declared that 
neither of the propositions received a two-thirds vote, and hence na 
appropriation was made. 

In reference to the publication of a book, there were 127 who voted 
for the Finance Committee's report and 121 for the substitute proposi- 
tion. I think in this case the moderator properly declared that no 
appropriation was made for two reasons: First, neither proposition 
received a two-thirds vote; and second, there was no opportunity 
to vote " no " against either proposition. 

In reference to the fourth question: " Can a special meeting be held 
at which the town can appropriate money for this celebration? " the 
Public Statutes, Chapter 27, Section 11, reads as follows: "A town 
may at its annual meeting raise by taxation a sum of money not ex- 
ceeding one tenth of one per cent of its assessed valuation for the year 
last preceding, for the purpose of celebrating any centennial anni- 
versary of its incorporation, and of publishing the proceedings of any 
such celebration." 

This statute was amended in 1892, Chapter 166, which reads as 
follows: " Any city or town may raise, by taxation, such amount of 
money as may be authorized by a vote of two thirds of the voters 
present and voting at a town meeting, for the purpose of celebrating 
the anniversary of its settlement or of its incorporation as a town, at 
the end of a period of fifty or of any multiple of fifty years from such 
settlement or incorporation, and of publishing an account of the 
proceedings of any such celebration." 

In the Revised Laws the commissioners united this statute passed 
in 1892 with a section which refers to appropriation of money for the 
celebration of the fourth day of July, which reads as follows: "A 
town may, at its annual meeting, appropriate money for the celebra- 
tion of the fourth day of July, and any town may raise by taxation 
such amount of money as may be authorized by a two-thirds vote for 
the celebration of the anniversary of its settlement or of its incorpo- 
ration at the end of a period of fifty or of any multiple of fifty years 
therefrom, and of publishing the proceedings thereof." 

The commissioners in their report make no mention of any change 
in the statute of 1892. 

I think money can be appropriated for the celebration of our one 
hundred and fiftieth anniversary at any special meeting. 
Respectfully yours, 

Ernest J. Powers, Town Counsel. 



24 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Danvers, April 4, 1902. 

Eleventh meeting of General Committee, Mr. Rice in the 
chair. 

The clerk read his letter to the town solicitor in accordance 
with the vote of the committee at its last meeting. 

The town solicitor sent the clerk a letter saying it was his 
opinion that no money was appropriated for the celebration 
or for the publication of a book, but that a simi of money 
can be appropriated for the celebration at a special town 
meeting. 

Voted to petition the selectmen to call a special town 
meeting. 

Voted that the selectmen be asked to call the town meeting 
at the earliest possible date. 

Moved that we ask for an appropriation of $2,000. 

Amendment offered that we ask for $3,000. 

Amendment offered that we ask for $2,500. 

Three thousand dollars, lost. Two thousand five hundred 
dollars, lost. Two thousand dollars, lost. 

Voted to ask for $2,500 for the celebration. 

Voted to ask the town to appropriate the proceeds received 
from the sale of the book to pay for the same and the com- 
mittee be authorized to publish the proceedings of the cele- 
bration in book form. 

Voted that the chairman and Mr. Preston be a committee 
to get up articles for the warrant for the special meeting. 

Voted to adjourn to call of chairman. 

W. B. Sullivan, Secretary. 

Danvers, April 24, 1902. 

Twelfth meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice in the 
chair. 

The town, at a special meeting held on April 21, 1902, voted 
by ballot as follows: 



Records of the Celebration Committee. 25 

For $2,500 360 

For no appropriation 128 

ForSl 38 

and as follows for the book: 

Yes 234 

No 226 

By the above votes the town appropriated $2,500 for the 
celebration and nothing for the publication of a book. 

Voted to proceed to arrange for the celebration. 

Moved to apportion out to the different sub-committees 
the sum of $2,000. 

Amended that it be $2,200. 

Amended that it be $2,250. 

The mover of the first amendment accepted without 
objection the second amendment offered. 

Amendment offered that it be $2,125. 

The amendment for $2,250 was lost. 

The amendment for $2,125 was carried. 

The following apportionment was made : 

Fireworks, illumination, and bells $500.00 

Banquet 

Printing 100.00 

Children's entertainment 100.00 

Music 550.00 

Parade 100.00 

Sports 200.00 

Reception Committee 100.00 

Transportation 

BaU 100.00 . 

Decorations 375.00 



$2,125.00 



Voted that the chairman of each board of selectmen of 
Middleton, Topsfield, Wenham, and Peabody, and the mayors 
of Salem and Beverly be invited as guests of the town. 



26 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Voted that the Governor and William H. Moody be invited. 

Voted to invite the two United States senators. 

Voted that this committee invite each organization or 
society to take part in the celebration and the pastors of each 
church to have appropriate services on Sunday, June 15, 1902. 

Voted to adjourn to next Wednesday evening, April 30. 

Voted that hereafter this committee will meet on each 
Wednesday evening, 

W. B. Sullivan, Secretary. 

Danvers, April 30, 1902. 

Thirteenth meeting of General Committee, Mr. Rice in the 
chair. 

Mr. Rice reported for the Reception Committee. 

Voted that W. B. Sullivan be authorized to have the pro- 
gram printed. 

Voted to have special badges for the General Committee 
and to leave the procuring of the badges to W. B. Sullivan. 

Voted to adjourn to next Wednesday evening. 

W. B. Sullivan, Secretary. 

Danvers, May 7, 1902. 

Fourteenth meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice 
in the chair. 

Voted that the clerk of this committee invite the persons 
whom this committee voted to invite. 

Voted that the selecting of persons to preside at the morn- 
ing meeting and at the banquet be left to the Committee on 
Literary Exercises. 

Voted to take $200 from the reserve fund and add it to 
the appropriation for the Coromittee on Parade. 

Voted to reconsider the motion whereby it was voted to 
appropriate $100 for the Ball Committee. 



Records of the Celebration Committee. 27 

Voted to appropriate $50 for the Ball Committee. 

Voted to appropriate $50 additional for the Committee on 
Decorations. 

Voted that sums of money will not be accepted from any 
persons or corporations to help defray the expenses of the 
celebration. 

Voted to adjourn. 

W. B. Sullivan, Secretary. 

Danvers, May 14, 1902. 

Fifteenth meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice in 
the chair. 

The clerk reported that the persons that the committee 
voted to be the guests of the town had been invited and 
that declinations had been received from Hon. George F. 
Hoar, Hon. H. C. Lodge, and Hon. W. H. Moody. Accept- 
ances had been received from Hon, John F. Hurley, mayor of 
Salem, and Hon. Samuel Cole, mayor of Beverly. 

Voted to invite the town of Peabody to take such part in 
the celebration as it desires. 

The Parade Committee reported that the Salem Cadets had 
accepted the invitation of the committee to take part in the 
parade. 

The Committee on Ball reported that the committee voted 
that the price of tickets would be $1, to admit a lady and 
gentleman, and fifty cents for an extra lady's ticket. 

The Literary Committee made a report of progress. 

Voted that Representative Charles H. Goulding be in- 
vited. 

Voted that the matter of printing invitations be left to the 
Reception Committee, these invitations to be sent as a 
notice to former residents of the town. 

Voted to adjourn to Thursday, May 22, 1902. 

W, B. Svi^hiY AN, Secretary. 



28 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Danvers, May 22, 1902. 

Sixteenth meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice in 
the chair. 

The clerk reported that the chairman of the selectmen of 
Topsfield and the chairman of the selectmen of Peabody had 
accepted our invitation. 

The clerk also reported that the Hon. W. M. Crane, gov- 
ernor of the Commonwealth, had declined our invitation. 

The clerk reported the acceptance by the board of select- 
men of Peabody for the town of Peabody to take part in the 
celebration. 

Voted that Chief Justice Holmes be invited. 

Voted that the board of selectmen of Peabody be invited. 

Voted that the living ex-governors of the Commonwealth 
and the mayor of Boston be invited. 

Voted to invite Gen. Granville M, Dodge. 

Voted to invite the President. 

Voted that $100 more be allotted to the Committee on 
Parade, and that $25 of it be taken from the Committee on 
Children's Entertainment. This leaves $100 as a reserve 
fund in the hands of the General Committee. 

Voted that Mr. Porter and Mr. Preston be a committee to 
see the Governor and ask hun to be present at the celebration. 

Voted to adjourn to Tuesday, May 27, 1902. 

W. B. Sullivan, Secretary. 

Danvers, May 27, 1902. 

Seventeenth meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice 
in the chair. 

Voted that the clerk notify the Committee on Banquet 
that it must clear away the tables so that the town hall can 
be used by the Ball Committee on the night of June 16. 

The clerk reported the following declinations of our invi- 
tations to attend the celebration as the guests of the town: 



Records of the Celebration Committee. 29 

Hon. John D. Long, Gen. Granville M. Dodge, the President, 
and Chief Justice Holmes. 

Voted that the Literary Committee be instructed to have 
programs printed for the exercises in the Institute, if they 
think it is necessary. 

Voted that the clerk hire a stenographer for the banquet. 

Voted to adjourn to meet next Monday, June 2, 1902. 

W. B. Sullivan, Secretary. 

Danveks, June 2, 1902. 

Eighteenth meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice 
in the chair. 

Mr. Rice reported the program for Monday, June 16. 

The clerk reported that ex-Governor George S. Boutwell 
declined our invitation. 

Voted that William D. Northend be invited. 

The selectmen of Peabody accepted the town's invitation. 

Voted that Speaker James J. Myers and President of the 
Senate Rufus A. Soule be invited. 

Voted to invite Richard Olney, Herbert Parker, and David 
I. Robinson. 

Voted that Mr. Nichols and Mr. Hutchinson be a committee 
to mark the historic places in Danvers. 

Voted to instruct the Parade Committee to go through 
Tapleyville. 

The chairman of the Parade Committee said the Parade 
Committee intended to have the parade go through Tapley- 
ville. 

Voted to reconsider the vote whereby we voted to instruct 
the Parade Committee to have the parade go through Tap- 
leyrille. 

Voted to invite William Penn Hussey and J. Fred Hussey, 
with their wives, to the banquet. 

Voted to adjourn to Friday, June 6, 1902. 

W. B. Sullivan, Clerk. 



30 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Danvers, June 6, 1902. 

Nineteenth meeting of the General Conunittee, Mr. Rice in 
the chair. 

The clerk reported acceptance from the chairmen of the 
selectmen of Middleton and Wenham, and also from Herbert 
Parker, attorney-general. 

The clerk also reported an acceptance from Representative 
C. H. Goulding. 

Voted to leave the matter of the band concert for Sunday, 
June 15, to the Committee on Bonfire, etc. 

Voted to ask the Transportation Committee to ask the 
Boston & Maine Railroad to have a train leave Newburyport 
on Tuesday, June 17, about 9 a.m. 

Voted that the Reception Committee have authority to 
furnish tickets for any lady who comes to the celebration 
with an invited guest. 

Voted that this committee sees no reason to change the 
terms of the invitation sent by this committee to all the organi- 
zations in Danvers to have their positions assigned in the 
parade in accordance with their date of organization, the 
oldest coming first; and Messrs. M. H. Barry and J. F. 
Porter be a committee to confer with the Committee on Parade 
about this subject. 

Voted to reconsider the motion whereby this committee 
voted that the Danvers organizations be placed in the line 
of march in accordance with the date of their organization. 

The original motion was amended: that the whole matter 
be left with the Parade Committee. 

The amendment was carried. 

Voted to adjourn to next Monday night. 

W. B. Sullivan, Clerk. 

Danvers, June 9, 1902. 
Twentieth meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice in 
the chair. 



Records of the Celebration Committee. 31 

The clerk reported declinations of our invitations from 
Hon. Richard Olney, Hon. J. Q. A. Brackett, Hon. David I. 
Robinson, and a letter of acceptance from Lieut. -Gov. John L. 
Bates. 

A petition was received from Rev. H. C. Adams and others, 
protesting against the band concert on Sunday evening, 
June 15. 

Voted to accept the communication. 

Voted to send an invitation to the press of Boston and 
Salem and the Danvers Mirror. 

Voted to appoint a committee of two to see that water 
closets be provided for the people during the celebration. 
Mr. Caskin and Mr. Learoyd were appointed. 

Voted to appoint M. H. Barry a committee to see that 
drinking water is to be had during the celebration on the 
streets. 

Voted to adjourn until Friday night next. 

W. B. Sullivan, Clerk. 

Danvers, June 13, 1902. 

Twenty-first meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice 
in the chair. 

Voted that the Parade Committee be instructed to have 
the parade go to Tapleyville as far as the corner of Pine and 
Holten streets, and that the clerk of this committee be in- 
structed to notify the Committee on Parade of this vote. 
This motion was carried by a vote of twelve in the affirmative 
and none in the negative. 

Voted to approve for payment three bills for the Committee 
on Bonfire: Labor, $69.16; labor, $71.58; and barrels, $24. 

The clerk reported that he had invited the newspapers to 
send representatives in accordance with the vote of the last 
meeting. 

Voted that the selectmen's room be headquarters for all 
committees during the celebration. 



32 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Voted to adjourn to the call of any two members of the 

committee. 

W. B. Sullivan, Clerk. 

Danvers, June 25, 1902. 

Twenty-second meeting of General Committee, Mr. Rice 
in the chair. 

The clerk reported that he had reported to the Parade 
Committee the vote of the last meeting. 

The chairman of the Committee on Printing presented the 
following bills for approval: 

Frank E. Moynahan, June 20, 1902 $63.75 

Frank E. Moynahan, June 24, 1902 8.00 

$71.75 
Voted to approve these bills. 

The following bills were presented and approved: 

On Signs. 

J.W.Nichols $3.00 

Woodman Bros. & Ross 3.75 

B. Porter Pousland 4.00 

On Music. 

L. W. Lovelace $27.90 

Eighth Regiment Band 105.52 

Salem Cadet Band 286.00 

Charles E. Perkins 11.00 

Pettingell & Barry 2.50 

William A. Berry 13.50 

James O. Perry 1.26 

National Guard Band 75.00 

On Sports. 

H.W.Mitchell $1.50 

Calvin Putnam Lumber Company 2.52 

Hose 1 of Danvers 15.00 

Patrick Stanley .50 

T. P. Hawkes 6.05 

John T. Carroll 2.50 



Records of the Celebration Committee. 33 

M.H.Barry $0.50 

Frank E. Moynahan 2.25 

F. M. Peabody 59.50 

Hose 2 of Beverly 15.00 

Joseph W. Bruley 3.50 

H. C. Worthly 6.38 

Clerk William B. Sullivan 23.62 

Parade Committee. 

Teachers of each school $64.00 

Second Corps of Cadets 134.75 

H. H. Pillsbury 12.20 

J. J. Macauley 1.00 

Pettingell & Barry 2.00 

H. H. Pillsbury 21.85 

H. H. Pillsbury 9.50 

Thed James 2.00 

Loring Littlefield 4.00 

J. T. James 110.00 

Banquet. 

Caskin & O'Connell $3.80 

G. W. Clapp 4.80 

H. C. Tanner 362.60 

Pettingell & Barry S.OO 

F. E. Moynahan 6.60 

Fireworks Committee. 

H. H. Tilton $300.00 

William A. Berry 7.50 

Salem Cadet Band 50.00 

Pettingell & Barry 30.25 

Danvers Electric Department 22.75 

Labor 4.50 

L. M. Littlefield 33.14 

C. N. Perley 50 

Children's Entertainment. 

L. B. Philbrick $0.30 

Fobes, Hayward & Co 31.92 

Stone & Forsyth 5.60 

Frank Prior 17.60 

Bennett Springer 26.36 

H. H. Pillsbury 1.50 



34 Oiie Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Reception Committee. 

H. H. Pillsbuiy $62.00 

Andrew Nichols 1.31 

John T, CarroU 90 

The clerk was authorized to collect the account and speeches 
of the celebration and have them typewritten. 

Voted to adjourn to meet July 2, 1902, when we adjourn. 

The Banquet Committee reported the payment to the 
treasurer of $411. 

Voted to adjourn. 

W. B. Sullivan, Clerk. 

Danvers, October 3, 1902. 

Twenty-third meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice 
in the chair. 

Records of last meeting read and approved. 

The following bills were presented and approved for pay- 
ment : 

J. M. Ward & Co $5.00 

Frank E. Moynahan 3.00 

D. E. Woodward 2.65 

Winchester Smith 1.60 

Voted to adjourn. 

W. B. Sullivan, Clerk. 

Danvers, February 3, 1903. 

Twenty-fourth meeting of the General Committee at Town 
Hall, Chairman Rice in the chair. 

Reading of the records waived. 

Voted to instruct the chairman, Mr. Crowley, and the 
clerk to prepare a report of the committee to be made to the 
town, including its expenditures. 

Voted to ask the town for $500 and the unexpended bal- 
ance of $133.58 for the publication of a book which will con- 
tain a report of the celebration. 



Records of the Celebration Committee. 35 

Voted that the Parade Committee be authorized to pur- 
chase a badge for WilUam Perm Hussey not to exceed $50 
in cost in accordance with the vote of the town. 

Voted to adjourn subject to the call of the chair. 

W. B. Sullivan, Clerk. 

Danvers, December 9, 1904. 

Twenty-fifth meeting of the General Committee at Town 
Hall. 

Present: Mr. Rice, Mr. Hines, Mr. French, Mr. Nichols, Mr. 
Tinsley, and Mr. Preston. 

Voted that C. H. Preston be secretary pro tern. 

Voted that the chairman of each sub-committee make a 
report of the doings of his committee to the Editing Com- 
mittee. 

Voted that a committee of four be appointed to edit the 
publication of the report of the proceedings of the one hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary under the directions of the full com- 
mittee. 

Rev. Charles B. Rice, William B. Sullivan, Charles H. 
Preston, and Ezra D. Hines were appointed. 

Voted to have illustrations of Town Hall and Peabody 
Institute, also Plains, Port, and Tapleyville, and Centre 
schoolhouses inserted in the book. 

Voted that a picture of the Judge Holten house be inserted. 

Voted that a picture of the General Committee be inserted 
in some form. 

Voted that the publication be on good paper. 

Voted that when the committee adjourn it be to the call 
of the sub-committee. 

Voted to adjourn. 

Charles H. Preston, 

Secretary jyro tern. 



THE CELEBRATION. 



The program, as arranged and carried out, was as follows: 

Sunday, June 15. 

Appropriate sermons in the churches in the morning, and special pro- 
grams in some of the churches in the evening. 

Midnight. Bonfire on Danvers Park, Conant Street. Concert by 
Salem Cadet Band, 10 to 12. 

Monday, June 16. 

Sunrise. Ringing of bells. 

10 A.M. Commemorative Meeting in Peabody Institute, Sylvan Street. 
Opening Address. Historical Address by Ezra D. Hines, Esq. 
Reading of Poem. Special Music, etc. 

1.30 P.M. Banquet in Town Hall, Sylvan and Holten streets. Ad- 
dresses by invited guests and citizens. 

2 P.M. Children's Entertainment in Peabody Institute. 

3 P.M. Concert on Danvers Square by Salem Cadet Band. 

7 P.M. Concert on Danvers Square by Salem Cadet Band. 

9 P.M. Ball in Town Hall, preceded by music on the lawn by the 

Cadet Band. 

Tuesday, June 17. 
Sunrise. Ringing of bells. 

10 A.M. Parade of military, civic, schools, trades, and other organi- 

zations and citizens generally. 
2 P.M. Athletic sports, bicycle races, etc., on Danvers Square. 
Balloon ascension on Danvers Park. 

4 P.M. Band Concert, Danvers Square, Salem Cadet Band. 
7.30 to 9.30 P.M. Concert, Danvers Square, Salem Cadet Band. 

8 P.M. Fireworks on Danvers Park. 

A detailed description of the various events, together with 
the full text of the various sermons and addresses, in so far as 
it has been possible to collect them, will be found in the 
following pages. 

se 



The Celebration. 37 

SUNDAY, JUNE 15. 



June gave us of its choicest days for our observance. 
Showers once or twice on Sunday sprinkled lightly the 
streets, but brought no inconvenience to the large congrega- 
tions that assembled in the houses of worship. On Monday 
and Tuesday the skies were only at tunes lightly overcast 
with clouds, and the air was clear and fresh. 

In accordance with the request of the committee, but 
following also the common impulse, special services appro- 
priate to the occasion were held in the several churches 
throughout the town. The sermons thus preached, so far 
as copies could be had, are here given. They are arranged 
in order of the dates of the organization of the churches, or 
of the times in some cases of the beginnings of regular gather- 
ings for public worship. 

The First Church was organized November 19, 1689, the 
parish having been incorporated in October, 1672. 

Program at First Church. 

The musical program at the First Church, at which time 
Rev, H, C. Adams, the pastor, preached the sermon which 
appears elsewhere, was as follows: 

Organ Voluntary. " Triumphal March " Pungrew 

doxology. 
Invocation. 

Anthem, " Jerusalem " Dr. Lowell Mason 

Responsive Reading. 

Gloria. 

Scripture Lesson. 

Hymn 1156. " O God, beneath Thy Guiding Hand." 

Prayer. 

Response, The Lord's Prayer, 

Offering and Prayer of Consecration. 



38 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Offertoire. " Some Day " C. H. Gabriel 

Male Quartet. 
Sermon. " Twenty-five Years of Church Life." 
Hymn 1004. " The Church's One Foundation is Jesus Christ Our 

Lord." 
Prayer. 
Benediction. 
PosTLUDE. " Festive March " Marshall 

Organist, Miss Mabel A. Thurston, 
Director, Mr. Charles E. Perkins. 
Sopranos: Miss Flora L. Richmond, Miss Carolyn Kimball, Miss 
Jennette Roberts, Miss Emma Little, Miss Nettie Williams. 

Altos: Miss Florence Rundlett, Miss Ethel Roberts, Miss Mary 
Little, Miss Alice Peabody. 

Tenors: Mr. John Hanson, Mr. Morton Leslie, Mr. Thurman Leslie. 
Bassos: Mr. Alex Gardner, Mr. Elmer Bedell, Mr. Ernest Putnam. 



By Rev. H. C. Adams, Pastor at the First Church. 

Text : Walk about Zion, and go round about her : tell the towers 
thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye 
may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for 
ever and ever : he will be our guide even unto death. — Psalm 48 : 
12-14. 

Two thoughts are suggested by these words of the psalmist. 
First, the fitness of recalUng the past, of keeping it in memory; 
and second, that the object of this recollection is that we may 
remember God whose hand is seen as the guiding and support- 
ing power in the universe. 

We are living in a world of change. All life takes on new 
forms, and thought finds new expression from age to age. 
God alone is unchangeable, and that which joins the present 
to the past is God, who is over all and through all his works. 
So that, however different may be our conception of life 
from that of our fathers, we may well say with the psalmist. 



Historical Sermons. 39 

" This [our fathers'] God is our God for ever and ever." 
And of the institutions which God has ordered for the 
accomphshing of his purposes and the blessing of mankind, 
the church is the oldest and the most permanent. An 
individual church may be lost, as a branch severed from the 
vine, but the church universal, as an institution through 
which God has manifested himself, and still manifests him- 
self, to men is ever present. Its forms may change, but the 
spirit and purpose and life abides. It may be very faulty 
because of the weakness of men to whom it is intrusted, but 
in it God is ever working for its upbuilding in wisdom and 
love. We may well emulate the psalmist in his desire and 
purpose to keep alive the memory of the past and to tell it 
to generations following, that they may be encouraged to a 
more earnest and devoted service, and, above all, to a clearer 
faith in God, who works now as he has worked in the past, 
for the permanent abiding of righteousness in the earth. 

How clearly we can see in this ancient church, which we 
all love, both the permanent and the changing! It is the 
same church that our fathers established here more than two 
and a quarter centuries ago, yet how different in its outward 
forms and in the conceptions of life and duty that prevail to- 
day. But God is the same to us to-day, though our concep- 
tion of him may be different from that held at the beginning. 
Worship and the fruits of worship have not changed, though 
the forms may have greatly changed. The weakness and 
self-will and self-seeking of men have not been altogether 
absent, but there is also very much evidence of the power 
and grace of God in transforming human lives and in guiding 
and molding the common life, so as to make the history of 
this church for more than two hundred years to be one of 
harmony, and of quiet but earnest effort for the common 
good. A record surely that should prove an incentive to us 
all and to future generations. 

What this record has been during the long period of the 



40 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

life of this ciiurch, and of the community of which its Ufe 
has been an important part, is preserved for all time in a 
complete and attractive form in the " History of the First 
Parish," prepared by Dr. Rice at the celebration of the two 
hundredth anniversary of the church. 

In connection with the celebration of the one hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary of the town, when something of an his- 
torical character may be expected, it has seemed to me fitting 
to review briefly the years since 1874, when the " History of 
the First Parish " was published. This is modern histor}^, 
fresh in the minds of most of you gathered here this morning. 
To me it has been a somewhat difficult task, since I have been 
obliged to get the facts from the records or from word of 
mouth. I shall ask you, therefore, to bear with me in what- 
ever mistakes I may have made, or failure to give the different 
events their due proportion of space or consideration. 

First of all may be noted the change that has come to the 
community as it has been affected by changed business condi- 
tions. Like many a village in New England, we look back 
to days of greater glory, if this be measured by numbers and 
general activity. We hear not infrequently mention of what 
used to be before thriving business interests were removed 
from us. During the first decade of the period we are con- 
sidering the shoe industry was flourishing, and a large factory 
added not a little to the numbers and life of the community. 
This factory, owned and operated by E. & A. Mudge & Co., 
was burned in 1884. The removal thus of from two hundred 
and fifty to three hundred workmen could not fail to have 
a depressing effect. Since that time the attempt to start 
another industry has failed, and we are to-day a quiet com- 
munity of farmers for the most part, aside from those who 
reside here and do business elsewhere. 

In spite of this depression or loss of business, the parish 
has apparently fully held its own. The number of dwelling 
houses has increased. Buildings formerly used for other 



Historical Sermons. 41 

purposes have been remodeled and made into dwelling 
houses, and new ones have also been built. And it is the 
number of homes that indicates the permanency of the life 
of any community. The church, during these years of change 
and of seeming loss, has continued its even course, and while 
there has not been great gain, that is no indication of any 
backward step. Such changes as have been mentioned 
would naturally affect the financial support most plainly. 
It has doubtless done so to some extent, but less than might 
naturally be expected. While many strong supporters and 
much of material resources have been removed from us, the 
financial support has been remarkably well sustained. 

One change which has been going on these twenty-five 
years or more has impressed me in going over the records. 
It is in some measure important, as it affects not only the 
financial support, but the representation in the parish. Such 
representation is based on the ownership of pews, and the 
yearly amounts paid are called taxes. Those who do not 
own pews pay rent for them, with no representation in the 
parish. During this period the taxes have almost constantly 
decreased and the rents have considerably increased. In 
1875 the amount received from taxes was $1,445. In 1880 
it was $1,105; in 1890 it was $1,088; in 1900 it was $742; 
while from rentals there was received in 1875 but $245; in 
1880, $302; in 1890, $208; in 1900, $429, or, taking the whole 
period of twenty-five years, the taxes are practically halved 
and the rentals are nearly doubled. 

In two respects the past twenty-five years have been very 
unusual in the history of the church. There have been three 
ministers and practically three church buildings. The build- 
ing erected in 1839 was remodeled in 1869, at a cost of about 
four thousand dollars, and so remained until 1889, when it 
was again remodeled and refurnished. The service of re- 
dedication was held on Thursday, June 6, 1889. The cost of 
this refurnishing: was between six and seven thousand dollars. 



42 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

The change was so complete as to give the appearance of a 
new interior, while the exterior was kept unchanged. The 
organ was removed from the front gallery and placed back of 
the pulpit, an addition having been built to make a place for 
it. The walls were newly frescoed, and with new carpet and 
new pews in place of those which had been used for more than 
half a century, it was fittingly called " a new old church." 
Perhaps the most striking change in the appearance was the 
"memorial windows in the place of those with small panes. 
These were thirteen in number. Of the eight large windows 
in the main audience room four were dedicated to four former 
pastors of the church and four to four former deacons. There 
were also three in the gallery in the front of the church and 
two under the gallery, one to Mrs. Braman and one to Mrs. 
Rice. 

The newly finished church seemed very satisfactory, as it 
was both beautiful and serviceable, and with the halo that 
always gathers about a lost treasure it stands in the thoughts 
of many as well-nigh perfect. However, the enjoyment and 
use of it was brief. In a little more than a month, on July 
23, it was struck by lightning," causing a damage of $500 or 
more; and in a little more than seven months, on the morn- 
ing of January 28, 1890, it was burned to the ground. For 
a time after this the services were held on Sabbath afternoons 
in the Methodist Church, and in the summer the " Taber- 
nacle " was built in the lot just east of the parsonage, and 
served as a temporary church home. 

The parish took action at once in regard to rebuilding. A 
committee was appointed consisting of George H. Peabody, 
Hon. Augustus Mudge, Edward Hutchinson, Otis F. Putnam, 
Alfred Hutchinson, J.' Peter Gardner, George W. French, 
Walter A. Tapley, and Charles H. Preston. The outcome of 
this effort to rebuild was the present beautiful and conven- 
ient church building in which we gather to-day. The dedi- 
cation exercises took place on September 2, 1891, it being 



Historical Sermons. 43 

the twenty-eighth anniversary of the settlement of Dr. Rice 
as pastor of the church. The cost of the present building 
with all its furnishings was about twenty-five thousand dol- 
lars. The memorial windows are seventeen in number; those 
of the old building were replaced by new ones in the new 
building, and two or three others were added to the number. 
To the attractive and serviceable building as it now is 
there can be but one serious objection, and that is the expense 
of keeping it in repair. In order to relieve the parish from 
any extra burden in this particular, it is hoped that a fund 
may be established. A generous beginning has already been 
made for such a fund and we ought, it would seem, to use all 
possible means to meet the conditions upon which this is 
offered. It may probably be said without mistake that no 
twenty-five years has witnessed larger gifts for the material 
interests of the church than those which we to-day recall. 
The spiritual interests cannot be so easily measured, yet there 
is surely much to give encouragement, much to give incentive 
for the present and for the future. The leadership of the 
church during the larger portion of the time fell to Dr. 
Charles B. Rice, whose pastorate covered thirty-one years, 
beginning September 2, 1863, and closing September 2, 1894. 
The membership of the church reached the highest point in 
1877, the year previous being one of deep religious quicken- 
ing, when 58 members were added. This was the third larg- 
est number ever received in one year. In 1728 there were 
59 additions and in 1832 there were 85. The whole number 
of members in 1877 was 223. At the beginning of this present 
year there were 194 members. The church has been blessed 
not only with long pastorates, but with a succession,?though 
few in number, of wise and consecrated Christian men for 
leaders; and surely Dr. Rice has an honored place in this 
truly apostolic succession. A happy event in the history of 
this pastorate was the observance of the twentieth anniver- 
sary. Dr. Rice had then been many years the longest settled 



44 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

pastor in this conference. Many were the words of appre- 
ciation spoken by members of this chm-ch and parish and 
by neighboring ministers with whom he always had pleasant 
and helpful relations, and a generous sum of money was given 
as token of the esteem in which he was held. We like to think 
of Dr. Rice to-day as a scholar of deep insight, a faithful and 
able preacher of truth and, above all, as a man of ripe Chris- 
tian experience which has made, and still makes, his counsels 
and sympathies to be of special comfort and strength; and 
we pray that his life may be spared for many years to come, 
that we may have his wisdom to guide our counsels and his 
mature Christian faith to give us hope and inspiration for 
duty. 

Rev. Curtis M. Geer, Ph.D., succeeded Dr. Rice, and was 
installed January 31, 1895, and dismissed April 8, 1897, 
leaving an active pastorate to make teaching his profession. 
This pastorate of a little more than two years was a decided 
anomaly in a church which had had but five ministers in 
nearly two hundred years. One possible advantage to be 
derived from thus breaking this unusual record of long pas- 
torates is that the church may be relieved from any obligation 
they might otherwise have felt of keeping their succeeding 
ministers beyond the period of their evident usefulness. The 
time of Mr. Geer's pastorate, though short, was long enough 
to reveal his sterling worth as a man and as a strong and 
effective preacher. 

Your present pastor was installed September 22, 1897, 
and has nearly completed his fifth year. The time covered 
by this service is too recent to call for review or comment. 
Suffice it to say they have been pleasant years for the pastor, 
and by reason of your patience and cooperation we may hope 
they have been years not wholly unfruitful. As an indication 
of the changes that come, it may be worthy of mention that 
he is now in point of service the oldest regular pastor in 
town. 



Historical Sermons. 45 

Next in importance to the office of minister is that of 
deacon. While this church honors its ministers of the past, 
we may well give honor to the men who have served in the 
office of deacon. The two men who were in office at the 
beginning of the period we are considering were Mr. Elijah 
Hutchinson and Mr. William R. Putnam. Mr. Hutchinson 
was chosen to office in 1861 and continued the same until his 
death on December 20, 1885. It was said of him that he was 
" a good citizen and neighbor, a kind and affectionate hus- 
band, and a genial friend. At all times affable and pleasant, 
never meeting or passing a friend or acquaintance without 
a kindly greeting or a cheerful word, and he was of a peculiarly 
even temper of mind." Mr. William R. Putnam was also 
chosen to office in 1861. In 1873 or 1874 he removed to 
Red Wing, Minn,, but retained his membership and official 
relation with this church until his death in September, 1886. 
He is spoken of as "a man of vigorous character and very 
greatly interested in the prosperity of the church. His 
engagements in this connection were maintained through a 
long period of years most diligently and effectively. His 
thoughts were much occupied with the doctrines of the Chris- 
tian faith. He often spoke upon them and in a manner indi- 
cating carefulness of consideration and clearness of mental 
action. Out of such meditations largely his strength of 
character grew." 

A worthy companion in office with such men was our 
beloved Deacon George Tapley, the characteristics of whose 
earnest and faithful life are still fresh in our memories. He 
was chosen deacon in August, 1874, and held the office until 
his death in August, 1901. He was a good man, possessed 
of high ideals of Christian living and consistent in all walks 
of life. As citizen, neighbor, and friend he was true and 
kind, and won others to him by his hearty, genial manner and 
his ever-hopeful spirit. Faithful in every office, as in his 
attendance upon all the services of the church, we were cheered 



46 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

and encouraged by his presence and by his always hearty greet- 
ing, and we still miss him much in all our gatherings together. 

The deacons now in office were appointed as follows: Mr. 
Edward A. H. Grover in October, 1876 ; Mr, Alfred Hutchin- 
son in January, 1886, and Mr. William Siner in January, 1901. 
Deacon Tapley served the church for many years as treasurer 
and also as treasurer of the parish. Mr. Augustus Mudge 
was clerk of the parish from 1866 to 1889, when he was suc- 
ceeded by Mr. William Siner, who still holds the office. 

A very important part of the church work for more than 
eighty years has been that of the Sabbath school, and one of 
the most arduous, as it is also one of the most rewarding, of 
the offices is that of superintendent. Mr. Augustus Mudge 
held this office from 1874 to 1879, thus making twenty-five 
years of service, having previously held the office for twenty 
consecutive years, 1848 to 1868. This is but one of many 
ways by which Mr. Mudge has shown his love for and interest 
in the church and its work through a long period of years. 
His thoughts, we may be sure, are with us to-day, and our 
prayer surely for him is that God will comfort and sustain 
him in these days of weakness and waiting. 

The other superintendents have been as follows : 

1879 to 1884 Mr. George W. French. 

1884 to 1886 Mr. Samuel A. Tucker. 

1886 to 1891 Mr. William Siner. 

1891 to 1897 Mr. Elbridge H. Gilford. 

1897 to 1900 Mr. E. A. H. Grover. 

1900 to 1901 Mr. Oscar R. Bodwell. 

1901 to the present time . . . Mr. William Siner. 

The numbers in the school have varied from time to time. 
Dr. Rice refers to a time when it numbered 400 or more. That 
was doubtless before the Methodist Church was started in 
Tapley ville. The average attendance at that time was 
about 300. I have not been able to get the largest enrollment 
during the period we are considering. Our present member- 



Historical Sermons. 47 

ship is 225 and the average attendance, 121, This is not as 
large as it should be. We miss especially the adult members 
of the congregation in the school. If the habit of attendance 
were formed we think this might become one of the most 
delightful and profitable hours of the whole week, — an hour 
spent in pleasant converse and reasoning together about the 
subjects of most vital interest to us all. 

Two branches of our church work are altogether new, 
having come within the last twenty-five years. I refer to 
the annual Harvest Festival and the Christian Endeavor 
Society. The Harvest Festival has been held since 1877, 
and has become one of the pleasant features of the year's 
work. It is held usually early in October, and for two even- 
ings. It furnishes quite a sum towards the annual income. 
It is also a fitting expression of our thought of the. goodness 
of God who gives the harvest, and coming at this season 
of the year it is a happy beginning of the social life of the 
church after the summer of comparative rest and quiet. 
We can but hope that for many years to come this may be a 
feature of our church life and work. 

The Christian Endeavor Society was organized February 
7, 1888, with 16 active and 3 associate members. At the 
present time there are 37 active and 13 associate members. 
I think there have been times when the numbers were some- 
what larger than at present. The attendance at the meetings 
during the fu-st quarter averaged 49. Since that time it 
has usually been larger. In one quarter in 1891 the average 
was 78, and one in 1901 it was 70. The object of the society 
is to develop the Christian life of the young people through 
participation regularly in the social service or prayer meeting, 
and in work for others through various committees. That 
this has been a source of strength to the church there can 
be no doubt, and many of the young people, through its 
services, have been led into a clearer conception of the 
meaning of the Christian life, and have developed a stronger 



48 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

purpose to follow Christ as the only way to the highest life 
here and hereafter. 

Another branch of our church work is that of the Ladies' 
Benevolent Society. The different branches of the women's 
work in the church have been brought together in recent 
years under this head. The good work done in this depart- 
ment in the past is being contmued and with the endeavor to 
make it effective in all possible ways and in all lines of work. 

For a few years past some of the young ladies have formed 
a Mission Study Class, and with unusual enthusiasm and 
devotion have studied our mission fields, the characteristics 
of the countries and the customs of the people where our 
mission work is carried on. This is just the kind of knowledge 
that we all need as members of the church if we are to have 
an intelligent understanding of our missionary work. 

This sketch of our church life would be incomplete did I 
not make some reference to the musical part of the services. 
At the beginning of this period the choir was under the direc- 
tion of Mr. Elnathan P. Davis, who for many years continued 
to act as chorister, rendering faithful and efficient service. 
Other leaders who have served for a longer or shorter period 
are Mr. Irwin Tapley, Mr. William Richmond, and Mr. Edward 
Hutchinson. The singing for the most part has been by a 
volunteer chorus choir. For a few years a quartet was 
employed, but this again gave way to a chorus which, since 
1898, has been under the direction of Mr. Charles E. Perkins. 
I need only say that in the work of this choir we have all had 
great satisfaction and have felt a just pride. 

The church was incorporated in 1890 and already possesses 
several gifts of money to aid in its work. Mr, James Braman 
gave $300: $100 a gift to the Ladies' Benevolent Society, 
$100 to the Sabbath-school library fund, and $100 to the 
Ministerial Library. A gift of $500 was made by Mr. George 
H. Peabody, the interest to be used for the Sabbath-school 
library, and a gift of $1,000 by Mrs. Julia A. Philbrick, the 



Historical Sermons. 49 

interest to be equally divided between the Sabbath-school 
and the ministerial libraries. 

I have tried to touch upon all the branches of our church 
and its work in these twenty-five years, but the chief part of 
the work cannot be measured nor told. This is the making 
of Christian character. In this the church has not failed. 
We think of the noble and strong men and women who have 
gone on to their reward and of the many who remain with us. 
Some of these we have mentioned because of their official 
connection with the church as its officers; many more equally 
worthy in their lives we would gladly have noted were there 
time, but we think of them to-day, — those who have lived 
and died in the faith and whose example is an inspiration to 
us. How many of them, could they speak to us, would tell 
us of their joy in laboring with others in this church and of 
the unmeasured blessing it had been to them in their strivings 
for the perfect life. 

As we think of these men and women who have lived and 
labored here, and have gone on before us, shall not our effort 
and prayer be that in the teaching and work of the church 
we may be instrumental, under God, in making the same 
strong, fearless, consecrated Christian men and women! 
And why shall we not ? We worship and love and serve the 
same God and Father, and faith is the foundation of all true 
character. With this purpose ever before us may we not ex- 
press our faith with the psalmist, saying, " For this God is our 
God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death." 

The Baptist Church, Danversport, was organized November 
12, 1781. 

The First Baptist Church. 

Rev. C. S. Nightingale, Pastor. 

Text of sermon, Genesis 4 : 9a, "Am I my brother's keeper?" 
Subject: " Danvers, as a City which Hath Foundations, 
whose Builder and Maker is God." 



50 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

The discourse was prophetic rather than historic, a foretaste 
of the stability, usefulness, and happiness of the community 
life one hundred and fifty years hence, should the principle 
of the text become the controlling principle in social, indus- 
trial, and political life. 

Decorations, special music, and an address in the evening 
on " Reminiscences," by Dr. Warren Porter. 

The Universalist Church was organized in 1829; partial 
organization with occasional services from 1815. 

At the Universalist Church Rev. Edson J. Reifsnider 
reviewed the history of Universalism in Danvers. He gave 
an excellent resume of the work of the church, his text being : 
" And ye shall tell it to your children and they to their chil- 
dren and to their children's children." 

He said in part: 

" The Universalist church was organized in 1829, although there 
was a partial organization earlier. While all of the Protestant 
churches may be said to be offshoots from the First Church, this church 
claims a peculiar relationship to the parent church, inasmuch as one 
of the deacons, who had served long and faithfully for the term of 
twenty-three years, from 1762 to 1785, Deacon Edmund Putnam, 
was the pioneer in the movement which led ultimately to the formation 
of this church; for he, with the Porters, the Endecotts, the Putnams — 
all relatives — and all his friends and neighbors, espoused the new 
faith." 

The Junior Young People's Christian Union held a special 
service in the vestry at 4 o'clock. The program included a 
solo, " My Native Land," by Nellie Cook; singing of the hymn 
written by Rev. J. W. Hanson for the one hundredth anni- 
versary; historical sketches b}'- different members. Catherine 
Beckford presided, and read a sketch of the town and some 
of its noted inhabitants. 

The Maple Street Church, organized March 25, 1844. The 



Historical Sermons. 51 

church having at this time no settled pastor, the discourse 
upon this occasion, by request of the Committee of the Church, 
was preached by Rev. Charles B. Rice. 

Text : That ye may tell it to the generation following. — Psalm 48 : 
13, 1. c. 

The one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the distinct, 
independent, or corporate existence of our town is to be cele- 
brated with public observances on the two next following 
days of the present week. It has been expected that our 
several churches would make some appropriate recognition 
of this event in their services of worship to-day. With this 
purpose in mind the committee of your church has very 
kindly asked me to lead your thoughts and speak in your 
behalf. It is a pleasant office. Since this invitation came 
to me my time has been occupied, not only by the ordinary 
full measure of work that falls to me, but by other unusual 
and special engagements. I regret that I have thus been 
unable to make a preparation for this service that might 
have corresponded more fully to the interest of the occasion 
and to the value of the work and life of your church. I 
suppose that the observances of to-morrow will bring before 
us the general features of the history of Danvers in its out- 
lines and to some extent in its details. It may save some 
repetition, therefore, and may perhaps be more appropriate in 
itself, if we confine now our reviews of the past, in the main, 
to the things somewhat closely connected with the history 
of your own church. Yet we shall not need to make the 
limitation narrow, and we shall wish to look back a little 
upon the earlier times. 

The first settlement of Danvers went along with the great 
Puritan emigration from England, beginning in 1628 and 
1629, and ending at about 1640. The Pilgrim occupancy 
at Plymouth had before that been slowly strengthening 
itself, through cold and sickness and famine and toil, but 



52 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

with a faith and courage that illuminated the wintry skies 
and that have cast their radiance beyond the continent. 
The larger movement to the colony of the Massachusetts 
Bay, of kindred purpose, had its origin and greatest impulse 
when Charles I began his effort, with whatever force of 
mind he had, to govern his British subjects without a parlia- 
ment and in despite of the constitutional safeguards of 
liberty and justice. With the assembling of the Long Par- 
liament, and when the purpose of the king was in so far 
baffled that the splendid struggle for ancient rights and for 
enlarging guaranties for freedom could be again renewed 
with point and hope on British soil, the current of the great 
emigration ceased. Here and there the stream flowed a 
little backward, and patriotic and ardent men returned to 
fight and to lead in the armies of the parliament and of the 
commonwealth. We call the Puritan emigration great. 
It was great; but the mmibers to 1640 — less than twenty- 
five thousand — were hardly larger than the multitudes that 
landed upon our shores during a single week of this last 
month of May. But the movement was great; and for two 
centuries the sons of these — the first that came — spread 
themselves almost alone upon the New England soil. 

The settlers of Danvers were of this stock. They were 
vigorous, industrious, frugal, devout, — the most of them 
tenacious of their rights as they saw them, — not always 
gracious in manner, not always broad in vision or purpose, 
but always bent on bringing to pass whatever they thought 
ought to be done. 

The New England men of the first age were enlightened 
much beyond the general measure of their time in the coun- 
try from which they came, and they were enlightened very 
far beyond the general measure then of the other nations of 
Europe. Under the stress of the times, in their poverty and 
straitened condition, the men of the second and third gene- 
rations made no advance on the wisdom of their fathers, 



Historical Sermons. 63 

and they hardly kept aflame the Hght their fathers brought. 
Behef in the power of witches, and in the power of the devil 
by a compact with witches, was universal on all continents. 
Judicial executions on the false charge of witchcraft had 
taken place not long before in many countries of Europe, 
Catholic and Protestant, on a scale so vast that its repetition 
in range of numbers in America would have swept bare, almost, 
of its population every New England colony. Men see now 
this Salem and Danvers witchcraft because the light has 
shined here, while in the darkness to them of continental 
Europe they see nothing. In this particular locality there 
were then some neighborhood and family divisions, making 
seams and fissures in which the seeds of delusions and frenzies 
caught. There was here a minister not altogether wise or 
gracious or Christian. There were other ministers round, 
about not wiser in sufficient measure to set him right at once, 
or to set him back at once. The doctors and magistrates, 
strangely, were not wiser than the ministers. Together 
they let slip for a time the rules of justice and reason. They 
turned backward, too, and misread the teachings of the 
Scriptures. The ministers, at least, should have known that 
the only Biblical witch was the person who claimed to be a 
witch, the person who made pretense to the possession of 
secret powers and arts. The fathers put to death, after a 
mockery of a trial, only those who denied the possession or 
exercise of any such powers. The Biblical witch, conjurer, 
soothsayer, sorcerer, magician, astrologer, necromancer, 
seer of visions, teller of fortunes, and healer by weird prescrip- 
tions and fascinations of all diseases, still lives and advertises 
himself in the Sunday papers — papers which are very use- 
ful for the facilities they afford for the study of such bewitch- 
ments. The Biblical witch can always be put to death by 
ceasing to pay him money for his enchantments and by 
keeping to the regular doctors. I advise that you follow 
the Hebrew law and do not suffer this witch to live — in keep- 



54 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

ing which law you will probably prolong your own lives. 
This particular Salem and Danvers frenzy was foolish and 
fierce and cruel. But it passed away. The people of Danvers 
have buried their animosities in the graves of the departed 
centuries, and the most of their foolishness. 

Through all this period Danvers was a part of the town 
of Salem. In 1672, twenty years before the witchcraft 
outbreak, there had been formed, by order of the General 
Court, a parochial district or parish embracing this part of 
Salem which had before often been called the Farms, and 
which was also then, or especially long afterward, known as 
Salem Village. It was called a " village " because — that 
name was given to it. It was occupied by farmers, with 
houses mostly far apart, somewhat as now in the most north- 
erly and westerly portions of the town. The old village 
included the most of the territory of the present town of 
Danvers, excepting the district at " the New Mills," now 
Danversport, and it embraced also a considerable territory 
in West Peabody, and for a time a large section of Middleton. 
A barnlike meetinghouse was soon built on Hobart Street, 
east of the junction of Forest Street, and there was held the 
first stated public worship in our town. 

The First Church, younger than the parish, was organized 
seventeen years later, in 1689, the year of the great Declara- 
tion of Right and of the accession of WiUiam and Mary, 
after the flight from England of James II, the last of the 
Stuarts — events greeted with rejoicing in the colonies scarcely 
less than in England itself. The parish had had its ministers 
before. The first pastor of the organized church, in whose 
family the witchcraft trouble began, was Samuel Parris, a 
man of a clear mind, but narrow, punctilious, and much taken 
up with the nursing of his own dignities. 

Then with a grateful change came Joseph Green, gracious, 
sensible, practical, caring for the children, and busy with the 
schoolhouse. In his seventeen years he overcame with good 



Historical Sermons. 55 

the evils of the past, he builded up in unity and love the 
broken church of God, and he wrought upon his own name, 
though he thought it not, a wreath of everlasting thankful 
remembrance. 

Next for half a century was Peter Clark, robust, studious, 
logical, decisive, indefatigable in length, whose wife has 
given us the name of Hobart Street, and whose descendants 
have been school teachers, ministers, merchants, and managers 
of railroads. After him for another fifty years, stretching 
down through a quarter of the nineteenth century, was Dr. 
Benjamin Wadsworth, dignified, decorous, stately, measured, 
devout, and wise. Within these long spaces were the Colonial 
and Revolutionary wars, whose names are still borne 
among us in honor or in awe by their " Dames " and 
" Daughters." 

Midway of the eighteenth century was the setting off from 
Salem, first of the district, and then of the town of Danvers, 
which town embraced for a hundred years both the present 
towns of Danvers and of Peabody. In our northern portion 
of thne tow there was no other church but the First Church 
until the organization of the Baptist Church in 1781. 

Of the First Church, Dr. Milton Palmer Braman became 
pastor in 1826. Until about that time it had not been neces- 
sary to be careful concerning middle names, since men had 
none. 

Dr. Braman was peculiar, somewhat; he was forgetful at 
times and absent in thought from all the world about him. 
He was always clear and sharp, learned, witty, strong, and 
eloquent, holding easily his place among the foremost preach- 
ers of the county and the state. 

During his ministry there came on the stormy period of 
the agitation respecting slavery. Christian men were moved 
rapidly or slowly in accordance somewhat with their training, 
somewhat with their temperament. Dr. Braman, not at all 
a friend of slavery, was conservative in his mental habits, 



^•^w 



56 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

with the instincts of a constitutional lawyer. Among the 
members of the church and congregation some, the more 
active and quickly moving, perhaps the more radical in taste 
and temper, became, in a measure, restless and drifted a 
little out of accord with the pastor and the more moderately 
going portion of the church that held with him. 

Meanwhile there was beginning to grow this modern village 
at the Plain, and it was becoming the business center of the 
northern part of Danvers. It was naturally desired that 
there should be here a Congregational place of worship. A 
meeting was held at the district schoolhouse on School Street, 
March 25, 1844, in which there was organized what was 
called the '' Third Orthodox Congregational Society " in 
Danvers; the Second was in the south part, now Peabody. 
A meetinghouse was built the same year upon this present 
site. The first meeting was held in the " Granite Hall Base- 
ment," November 4. Your church itself was organized 
December 15, at the house of Mr. John S. Learoyd, its public 
services being afterward held in the hall. But the meeting- 
house was shortly finished, and was dedicated on the 22d 
of January, 1845. This meetinghouse was, fortunately, 
spared in the great fire of June 10 of the same year, a fire 
which brought great loss to this village. The name of the 
church, in correspondence with that of the society, was at 
first the Third Congregational Church in Danvers. In 1857, 
two years after the division of the town into the two portions, 
— Danvers and South Danvers, or Peabody, as at present, — 
the name was changed, the term " Third " having lost its 
meaning, and the title became as now, " The Maple Street 
Church." 

The new church was thus established chiefly to meet the 
new conditions of locality, and its members were drawn to 
it chiefly by the greater convenience of attending here. 
There were some who came from the ancient body the more 
readily for reasons already indicated, since they had entered 



Historical Sermons. 57 

more zealously than others into the political movement for 
the abolition of slavery. This ground of distinction was 
not of very long continuance. We may not know even now 
on which part was the greater wisdom. A much less active 
opposition to the aggression of the slave power might have 
led to the fastening of its mischiefs longer upon us. A much 
more rapid movement of hostility to slavery might have 
brought the great war upon us while the South had not put 
itself so clearly in the wrong, and while the North was less 
fully united — with doubtful and perhaps disastrous issues. 
Guided of the Most High, the nation kept a middle path, and 
it lives, free and strong. 

Your church had at first forty-two members. Frederick 
Howe and Samuel P. Fowler were its first deacons. Both 
had been members of the First Church, and Mr. Howe had 
been a deacon in it. The earnestness and purity of his Chris- 
tian life were long remembered in that body, and they are 
still remembered with you. In an historical sketch prepared 
by Deacon Fowler for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 
Maple Street Church, after saying that most of its early 
members were from the First Church, he adds: '^ Whatever 
of zeal and efficiency we may have shown in establishing and 
maintaining the ordinances of the gospel in this place may 
be traced to the thorough teachings we received from the 
able and faithful pastors of the mother church." It was 
a filial and gracious testimony. By the word " pastors " 
he made a reference to Dr. Wadsworth along with Dr. 
Braman. 

This church from the first, partly because it was new and 
called forth enterprise, and partly from the personal assorting 
of its members, took on, as I think, a certain quality of 
versatility or alertness of individuality which it kept for 
many years. I do not know whether it has ever lost it. 
There have been those who have thought that in its early 
years, as may often be the case with new undertakings, the 



58 One Hwidred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

church lacked a little in steadiness of action. If this were 
ever true, of which I am not sure, that quality has been long 
since supplied. 

After the establishment of this church many families 
living within what would be regarded as its natural territory 
continued for many years to worship at the ancient place. 
With the growing up of the children, whose associations were 
most naturally here, and by the gradual pressure of conven- 
ience, they one after another, for the most part, transferred 
their relation to you. This process was going on long after 
my acquaintance with the town began, and indeed it can 
hardly now be said to have wholly ceased. 

The laying out, not long after this church was planted, of 
the railroad lines that cross our town made it certain that 
its center of business and life must be here. The running, 
more recently, of the electric cars from every part of the town 
has also increased the ease of passage to this central district. 
These things have changed altogether the relative importance 
of that part of the town in which the ancient church was 
planted, and the relative strength of the churches has also 
changed. At the time of my becoming pastor of the First 
Church that was still the larger in numbers, and perhaps it 
was the stronger in financial resources. These conditions 
are now reversed. We of the mother church have seen you 
overtake and pass us and go on far before us. I suppose 
such a sight is not naturally most pleasant to those who thus 
fall behind, but I do not believe there is a member of that 
older church who does not rejoice in the prosperity which 
you have gained and which you have deserved. It is most 
just to say that your growth has not been due altogether 
to your favorable situation. There have been other churches 
with favoring outward conditions that have not made such 
progress. Your prosperity has sprung from your activity, 
your good fellowship, your loyalty to your church, and, as I 
surely trust, from the genuineness and force of your Christian 



Historical Sermons. 59 

purpose. If these things abide with you and abound, you 
will have continuing strength from God. 

I have known all the pastors of your church except the first. 
Rev. Richard Tolman was ordamed September 17, 1845. 
He resigned November 8, 1848. He was afterward minister 
at Tewksbury from 1852 to 1870, and he had charge of a 
Congregational Church at Hampton, Va., from 1870 to 1879. 
Pleasant memories remain here concerning him. 

Rev. James Fletcher succeeded to the pastorate June 20, 

1849, and he held the post for nearly fifteen years to the 
21st of May, 1864. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College 
and of Andover Seminary. He is remembered among us 
for his most admirable friendliness and for the grace and 
sweetness of his temper and of all his life. After the close 
of his pastorate he was for five years principal of our Holton 
High School. He left in 1871 to take charge for seven years 
of the Lawrence Academy in Groton. He taught afterward 
for five years at Manchester, Vt. The last ten years of his 
life were spent at Acton, his native place, where he died 
March 28, 1893, at the age of seventy-one. 

During the pastorate of Mr. Fletcher, on the 10th of July, 

1850, your first meetinghouse was destroyed by fire, mali- 
ciously set. With vigorous effort it was promptly rebuilt, 
and the present house was dedicated September 17, 1851, 
Mr. Fletcher preaching the sermon. The clock was put 
upon the tower in 1854. An indebtedness of the society, 
from which it had never before been wholly free, was lifted 
off at about this time by the commendable exertions of many 
members, with specially generous gifts from Mr. Moses 
Putnam. 

In the matter of fires our older church is still much before 
you. Your house has been burned once, ours twice; and we 
have an additional lead by one stroke of lightning. One of 
our meetinghouses besides was tried by two earthquakes; 
one in 1727, which Peter Clark described as " a very great 



60 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

earthquake, accompanied with a verj'- great noise and shaking, 
which was greatly surprising to the whole land . . . with 
rumbling noises in the bowels of the earth for divers weeks " ; 
the other, in 1755, which was thought to have been an adjunct, 
sequel, supplement, or response to the great Lisbon earth- 
quake, and one or other of which two earthquakes shook 
or frightened down the building that was set on Folly Hill. 
It cannot be pretended that any meetinghouse of yours has 
gone through such trials. 

Rev. Wm. Carruthers was pastor of your church from 
April 18, 1866, to March 28, 1868. A revival was in progress 
at or before his coming, and eighty persons were added to 
the church during the first year of his ministry. He was 
earnest, warm-hearted, and faithful in his service. He has 
had several useful pastorates in the state since leaving 
Danvers, and is now in charge of the church in South Dart- 
mouth, though living at Fairhaven. The next in succession 
was Rev. James Brand, who was ordained and installed 
October 6, 1869. Mr. Brand was born in the Province of 
Quebec in 1834. He worked for six years as a carpenter 
in Saco, Me. He graduated at Yale College and at Andover 
Seminary. He came to Danvers in the strength and enthu- 
siasm of his youth, but the force of his youth went on and 
grew through all his life. His preaching was direct, clear, 
searching, and powerful. His rare mental gifts were matched 
and supported by the thoroughness of his Christian character 
and the worth of his personal life. He left Danvers in 1873 
to become pastor of the First Congregational Church in 
Oberlin, Ohio, and this position he held until his death, 
April 11, 1899. Mr. Brand occupied many places of import- 
ance in our church organizations and our benevolent societies 
and he prepared material of many sorts for the public press. 
He was a soldier in the great war. He carried the colors of 
the Twenty-seventh Connecticut Regiment, and was wounded 
at Fredericksburg, at Chancellorsville, and at Gettysburg, 



Historical Sermons. 61 

names of mingling disaster and of glory. He received a gold 
medal for distinguished bravery at Gettysburg. I do not 
think he ever said much of these things at Danvers. But he 
was always courageous and always faithful to his sense of 
duty. We cannot doubt that he has received just and 
fitting distinction at the hand of the King of men. 

Rev. Walter E. C. AVright came to your church October 
12, 1875, and was here for about seven years, until September 
4, 1882. He, too, had strength. He was alert distinctly 
in mind, and clear in purpose. He did with his whole heart 
whatever he did, both in the church and in the community. 
He took great interest in the cause of temperance. He 
imbibed in some way the idea that the illegal sale of intoxi- 
cating liquors in the town of Danvers ought to be stopped. 
He became positive upon this point. His eye kindled and 
flashed as he spoke of it. He thought that the covert and 
persistent seller of intoxicating drinks that could not be 
caught in other ways might well enough be caught by legal 
traps, as one would set traps for a wildcat that carried off 
lambs. I do not think he minded helping set the traps. 
The minister at that time at the First Church was always 
willing to allow him to proceed alone upon these trapping 
expeditions, but if a trip were to be taken to look up some 
balanced bowlder or a ledge of curious rock, he was quite apt 
to press himself into your pastor's company, and no com- 
panionship could be better than his. Mr. Wright is now a 
professor in Olivet College. The intervals after the pastorates 
of Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Carruthers, Mr. Brand, and Mr. Wright 
were twenty-four, eighteen, twenty-three, and fourteen 
months, respectively. 

The pastorate of Rev. Edward C. Ewing began November 
1, 1883, and closed November 1, 1899. You will not expect 
me to speak particularly of one whose life and work are so 
freshly in all your minds. I think it may be safely said that, 
letting alone the traps, the liquor dealers of Danvers did 



62 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

not receive much more of direct aid and comfort from him 
than they did from his predecessor. Your ministers, indeed, 
seem never to have been much addicted to strong drink, 
or to friendhness to the business of them that sell it. The 
years of Mr. Ewing's ministry cover a period, on the whole, 
of continuing prosperity and growing strength for your 
church. And I am sure that you will wish me to testify to 
the strong impression made upon us all by his conscientious- 
ness, his fidelity, his fixed integrity and uprightness, his 
earnestness, his evangelical spirit, and his general capacity 
for all ministerial work. The interval after he left was but 
short. And now the succession has closed with a pastor 
active, laborious, faithful, and brilliant, in the very first 
years of his ministry. 

Taken together from the first, it is a series of worthy and 
effective men, for whose work among you you may well be 
grateful. Of your pastor who is soon to come I will not now 
speak particularly. But the prosperity of your church has 
not been due alone to the leadership of its pastors. The 
lives of many faithful Christian men and women have gone 
to build up its strength. The names and forms of many must 
be coming before your thoughts. There can be given them 
now only this tribute of your silent remembrance. Of one 
or two only some brief mention may be made. Deacon 
Samuel P. Fowler has already been spoken of as an original 
member of the church, and an officer in it from the first. He 
was a deacon to the end of his life. He was for a long time 
chairman of the town board of overseers of the poor. He 
knew much of local and personal history, and had a wide 
and keen acquaintance among the people of the place. He 
was not the most smooth in speech or manner, but he was 
kind in heart and faithful in every trust. He had, in a con- 
siderable measure, what we like to think of as characteristic 
somewhat of our town, — strongly marked individuality 
combined with a sense of the worth of public life and a habit 



Historical Sermons. 63 

of acting not uncomfortably along with others. He was, in 
fact, throughout, a Dan vers man — and he loved the church 
of God. 

I could not pass without a word on the name of Deacon 
John S. Learoyd. He was a deacon of this church for thirty- 
two years and six months, and superintendent of its Sabbath- 
school for a little more than thirty years. He was a man 
very positive in his convictions and very earnest and decisive 
in pushing his purposes. His interest in the church was so 
thorough, and his zeal for all good things so clear and genuine, 
that his vigorous and decisive manner did not awaken oppo- 
sition, but carried him on to leadership. He put his whole 
heart into the work of the Sunday-school and his enthusiasm 
there was catching. Few men among all the churches round 
about us have wrought on these lines so successfully as he. 
And there can be but few men, if there are any, to whom this 
church is more indebted for the strength and efficiency to 
which it has grown. We must pass by the names of others, 
men and women, that we should be pressed in our own 
thoughts to mention. 

Two only of the original members of this church are now 
living, Mrs. Pamelia F. Putnam and Mrs. Emeline P. Putnam. 
Besides these, seven other persons have been members for 
fifty years or more. Mrs. Corneliaa H. Perry, Mrs. Eunice P. 
Putnam, Mrs. Elizabeth P. Putnam, Mr. Edwin A. Perry, 
Mrs. Ellen L. Perkins, Mrs. Clara A. DuBois, and Mrs. Abbie 
M. Berry — so swiftly these lists are changing. 

I observe that your manual contains the names only of 
those who were living when it was prepared and printed, and 
does not give the full list of membership from the first, as is 
often done. But those names, though dropped from your 
printed record, are enrolled, we trust, in heaven. The 
dividing lines, indeed, are narrow, even as they are quickly 
shifting. 

A little more than a year ago your church was incorporated; 



64 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

a wise procedure, as I think, and one by which it may keep 
more securely in its own hands its hfe and the control of its 
affairs. 

It is gratifying to notice that the benevolent gifts of the 
church are large in correspondence with its size and strength. 
The giving spirit with a church is both a sign and a safeguard 
of its prosperity. There is great need that our prosperous 
churches should give freely for the carrying on of Christian 
work both abroad and at home. In our New England towns 
are many churches once strong that are now weak. It is 
of vast importance that these should be upheld by aid wher- 
ever they need it, given through our Home Missionary Soci- 
eties, and drawn from the gifts of the churches that are 
stronger. It is pleasant to think that your church will not 
fail to take its share in this Christian and patriotic service. 

A Christian church is planted for the building up in strength 
and grace of its own members and households, and for the 
making known as it may, by its services of public worship 
and by the lives of its members, the power and beauty of the 
Christian faith, and for the rendering in all these ways its 
grateful tribute to the Redeemer and Lord of men. Your 
place in this goodly fellowship of churches and in this exalted 
service has grown to be large and important. Its outward 
opportunities are not likely to diminish. We hope and 
expect that by your own fidelity, and by the favor of God abid- 
ing upon you, its accomplishments will equal the measure 
of its opportunities and its duties. The results of the life and 
growth of a Christian church are not limited to the present 
time. Its history cannot be told by the tracing only, as we 
have tried a little to trace to-day the course of outward 
events related to it, or the visible effects in the earthly lives 
of its members. Its influences reach beyond the range of 
outward things or of the present life of man. A church 
transfers its members, as yours has already begun to do, to a 
land of enduring continuance, to the immortal state of man. 



Historical Sermons. 65 

It is there only that its history can be written, as it is there 
alone that the final and enlarging issues of life appear. 

It has been supposed by some that there might be an error 
through the fixing of the thoughts of men too far upon the 
coming stage of being, with a lessening of interest in the things 
that now surround us, and an impairing of the practical 
usefulness and the real prosperity of life. It is possible that 
such a result may sometimes have appeared. But it is certain 
that there can be no real opposition between the appropriate 
cares and cfhciencies and enjoyments of the present time 
and the great befitting preparations for the life to come. 
The laws of life on earth and in heaven are one. The graces 
and adornments, the finished shapings, and the strong equip- 
ments and energies of human character are the same in every 
world. To behold and consider the ideals of perfection in 
the presence of God and in the sacred assemblies of the just 
wOl set forward and ripen every present power and beauty 
of human life. It is most needful for man in his present days 
that there should be strengthened upon him the hold of duty 
and the lines of faith that lift him out of the state of the things 
poor and perishable and vain, and that bring him within the 
sweep of the things immortal and holy. The present powers 
of human life are all one with its endless hopes. All the 
earthly hopes of man are from his nearness to things eternal. 
All the light of man even on earth is from the great white 
throne of God. It is the lofty office of the Christian Church 
to be making known to every man, in its worship and in the 
lives of its members, this glory of the state of God, visible and 
accessible to man. Thus your lives are most useful to men 
as they are most religious. And your church will aid most 
effectively in every social and charitable purpose while it 
carries forward most vigorously its own most distinctive 
Christian offices. 

With a Christian people the keeping of a memorial day 
like this must naturally strengthen within us these instincts 



66 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

of immortality. In your own thoughts, much beyond what 
has here been spoken, you have called to mind the things of 
the past, and your friends of the former years are near at 
hand. You count the membership of your church on earth 
and in heaven. You observe the enlarging numbers of those 
who are gathering upon the land of life. With every Chris- 
tian church, and by the very nature of your calling, your 
associates and your possessions are with the things past and 
the things to come; and you are, yourselves, a part of the 
everlasting kingdom of God. 

" One family we dwell in Him, 
One church above, beneath. 
Though now divided by the stream. 
The narrow stream of death. 

One army of the living God, 

To his comimand we bow ; 
Part of the host have crossed the flood 

And part are crossing now." 

Thus may you ever abide in faith and hope and love and 
endless life. Thus ever may this, your chosen place of assem- 
blmg and of worship, be to you the house of God and the gate 
of heaven. 



The Catholic Church services were first held November 1, 
1854. 

Btrman 

At Annunciation Church, Danvers, by Rev. Henry A. Sullivan, Pastor. 

To-day, brethren, we are on the eve of celebrating a very 
important event in connection with the history of Danvers, 
viz., the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its incorpo- 
ration as a separate municipality. It is scarcely necessary, 
therefore, to say that in your civic capacity there is a certain 



Historical Sermons. 67 

fitness and propriety in joining with your fellow-citizens to 
make the celebration a memorable one in the annals of this 
township. 

Looking back to that auspicious day, the 16th of June, 
1752, when the people of Dan vers severed the ties which bound 
them to their venerable mother, Salem, and, full of hope and 
courage, tried for themselves the experiment of self-govern- 
ment, it is true to say that in the century and a half which 
have since elapsed substantial progress has been made in 
all that tends to promote the spiritual and temporal well- 
being of a community, a progress which compels the admission 
that these early settlers builded better than they knew and 
laid deep and broad the foundations of a municipality, 
enlightened, prosperous, contented, happy, and, above all. 
God-fearing, which we know the people of Danvers to be 
to-day, — a people loyal to their Creator and loyal also to 
their country. 

Here there is no discord, no religious nor racial animosity, 
no hindrance to the pursuit of happiness. Moreover, the 
relations between the various creeds are as harmonious as 
conscience will permit. Prejudice is almost unknown. Peace 
and harmony are the rule rather than the exception. No 
misunderstanding exists between Roman Catholics and the 
members of other religious denominations, and none will there 
be if justice and charity prevail. 

Such is the condition which confronts us on this memorable 
occasion, and when we reflect on the past and realize the 
advance made in all that concerns the weal of her citizens, 
there is good reason indeed to be proud of Danvers, to rejoice 
at the splendid record she has made during the time of her 
corporate existence. 

Her growth, happily, is not of the mushroom variety. We 
may regard it rather as of the kind which is slow, constant, 
and enduring, which weathers successfully the storms of 
time and gives promise of a bright future. This characteristic. 



68 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

it may be added, is entirely in keeping with the name, accord- 
ing to some, so appropriately chosen for this historic old 
town, and which explains why now, at the end of a hundred 
and fifty years, the people of Danvers are proud to be citizens 
of a community which has a record surpassed by few in the 
old Bay State. 

There is, however, an additional reason why you should 
heartily endorse and take a prominent part in this celebration, 
viz., the fact that Holy Mother Church has made here such 
marvelous progress during the past half century and been 
the happy means of breaking down prejudice and promoting 
peace and good-will. Somewhat less than fifty years ago 
the venerable, saintl)^, and esteemed Father Shahan, then 
pastor of Salem, held services in this town. Little by little 
his flock increased, until finally, in 1859, it was deemed neces- 
sary to purchase the present place of worship, which, up to 
that time, was the property of the Universalist congregation. 
His successors to the pastorate, according as the needs of 
their charge warranted, enlarged and beautified the church, 
so that to-day it stands out as a fitting temple wherein to 
offer sacrifice to the Most High, and lead heavenward the 
hearts and minds of the faithful. The efforts of your former 
pastors have indeed borne fruit. To their credit be it said, 
their labors, like the grain of mustard seed sown in good 
ground, have been productive beyond expectation, so that 
now, as a result, we behold here a united flock of almost 
twenty-three hundred souls, a Christian living people, who 
practice what they profess to believe, and who, moreover, 
reflect honor on the church by their good example. 

Here, too, as an evidence of their good-will and generosity, 
their cordial cooperation with their duly appointed spiritual 
guides, we find this splendid property entirely freed from 
debt, with ample means assured for any future improvements. 
This proof of the spiritual and material well-being of the 
church in this town is, indeed, a cause for rejoicing and, as 



Historical Sermons. 69 

your pastor, I deem it a pleasant duty to congratulate you 
all on these magnificent results and speak in praise of the 
truly Christ-like spirit which I feel animates you to-day, as 
of yore, to be doers, not simply hearers, of the divine word; 
to be lay apostles in the upbuilding of God's kingdom on earth. 

But brethren, we must not forget on this occasion the early 
pioneers of Catholicity in this township, who made possible 
the establishment of the present parish. This celebration 
would indeed be incomplete, in so far as we Catholics are 
concerned, did we not make mention of those staunch adher- 
ents of the church who, by their living, practical faith, their 
upright lives, their pure, unselfish devotion to the cause of 
our holy religion, have left behind them a glorious example 
for all time, one worthy, in truth, for imitation and which 
must ever win for them the respect, esteem, and admiration 
of every sincere believer. 

Forced by oppression and injustice of every kind to leave 
their native land, they sought here a refuge from the crying 
evils of tyranny and misgovernment, and the inalienable 
rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness which 
under the constitution of these United States is guaranteed 
to all the citizens thereof, be the}^ native born or naturalized. 
True, they had their ups and downs even in this country, 
for vicissitude is the lot of mankind. 

They suffered much in those days from narrow bigotry 
and unreasoning prejudice; nevertheless they did not falter 
in their loyalty to the faith, nor could trial and persecution, 
however severe, daunt the magnificent courage which ever 
animated the exiled children of Erin in asserting and exer- 
cising their rights of conscience. Verily there were giants 
in those days, men who knew not the meaning of compromise 
or surrender when there was question of professing the religion 
of Christ crucified, and who, though for the most part un- 
lettered and without even a rudimentary knowledge of the 
three R's, nevertheless excelled in heavenly wisdom and 



70 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

proved themselves to bq wiser in their generation than are 
some of their descendants to-day. 

They reahzed fully that for them, as for all born into this 
world, but one thing is necessary, viz., eternal salvation; 
that aught else is of secondary importance; that intellectual 
gifts, education, riches, honors, health, strength, and even 
pleasures, are simply means to this end; that we are only 
stewards of the good things of life which an all-wise and 
bounteous Providence has given us that we may use them 
as stepping stones in our journey onward to the heavenly 
Jerusalem. 

This was the thought which dominated the early pioneers 
of the faith in these New England states and which inspired 
and actuated them to make such heroic sacrifices for the 
religion of their fathers. With churches few and far between, 
with scant opportunity to hear the word of God and approach 
the sacraments, they conserved the precious treasure com- 
mitted to their keeping at baptism; they enhanced its value 
by the practice of good works; and deemed it, as did St. Paul, 
all glory to suffer for Christ's sake. Well, therefore, may 
we honor them to-day ; well may we revere their memory, and 
as we bring to mind their unswerving loyalty to creed and 
the land of their adoption, their devotion to all that makes 
for righteousness, pay tribute to their Christian manliness, 
their fearless, outspoken advocacy of the cause of truth and 
justice, and, thank God, the Catholic community in particular 
is the gainer because of their existence. 

We may not look on their like again because they were 
verily the salt of the earth, and hence, for all they were and 
all they did, we have good reason on this festal occasion to 
hold them in loving benediction and rejoice they have not 
lived in vain. Champions of the faith, heroes in the days 
which tried men's souls, they fought indeed the good fight 
and persevered to the end. Let us hope they have received 
the crown of glory; that the just Judge has granted them 



Historical Sermons. 71 

eternal rest, and that perpetual light now shines upon them 
in the abode of the elect. 

I have dwelt, perhaps, somewhat at length on the religious 
aspect which this celebration takes on for the Catholics of 
Danvers, but in so doing my purpose is simply to emphasize 
the truth that we are to seek first the kingdom of God and 
his justice; that duty to our Maker and the obligation arising 
from our dependence on him as our Creator, Conserver, and 
final end must necessarily take precedence in importance 
over any and all merely civic considerations, and claim pref- 
erably our chief care and attention. Nevertheless, next 
after love of God, comes love of coimtry; the authority which 
exacts obedience to the one, dictates a similar attitude with 
respect to the other, since all authority is from on high. 

Zeal for the welfare of fatherland, respect for its laws and 
readiness to aid in its defence, are inseparable from the true 
conception of citizenship and the duties which it imposes, 
and are the loyal homage which every worthy son pays to 
the country of his birth or adoption. 

" Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God 
the things that are God's." These words of the Saviour 
formulate in a practical way the relations of the individual 
with the civil government under which he lives, and dictate 
the attitude which the true Christian must ever assume 
toward the higher powers. There can be no question, breth- 
ren, as regards the love which Catholics, without exception, 
have for this our glorious country, nor may any one presume 
to charge them with disloyalty or a divided allegiance. The 
history of the republic would be incomplete indeed were the 
names of the children of the church who have given their 
fortunes and sacrificed even life itself in her behalf, since the 
great struggle for independence, blotted out from her annals. 
Roman Catholics were never found wanting when the integ- 
rity of the Union was endangered or when there was question 
of safeguarding and perpetuating her institutions. Faithful 



72 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

to the teaching of the Master, their conduct from the very 
foundation of the repubUc has been always the same. They 
can point, indeed, with pride to the past, and ever rejoice in 
the thought that they have done their duty as citizens and 
deserved well of their country. We trust that as it has been 
so it will continue to be, that first and foremost in all that 
conserves the nation's weal, in all that tends to make her a 
shining example of popular government, of civil and religious 
liberty, none will be found more ardent in loyal, loving sup- 
port than the members of the one, true, holy, and apostolic 
church, which was from the beginning and will be to the 
end of time the safeguard and upholder of all constituted 
authority. 

In conclusion permit me to say, I am pleased on this occa- 
sion to speak in praise of a town which has done itself proud 
in the past and whose traditions are so thoroughly in accord 
with what is highest and best as regard local self-government. 
Here liberty without license, and fraternity in all that Chris- 
tian charity demands, are well exemplified in the temper and 
conduct of the people, and are, so to speak, of the soil. Here, 
too, love of order and obedience to the law are visibly mani- 
fest and the spiritual and intellectual interests of the commu- 
nity properly provided for and secured. 

Hence do I rejoice with you to-day, and tender my best 
wishes for the future welfare of this township, ever trusting 
that the Most High will preside propitiously over its destinies. 

May Divine Providence watch over and protect this land 
of the free; may He save this grand old commonwealth; may 
He bless especially this town of Danvers and its inhabitants 
and aid them to reach securely that promised haven where 
joy and peace will be their portion forever and ever. Amen. 



Historical Sermons. 73 

The Episcopal Church, organized June 25, 1857. 

At Calvary Episcopal Church, by Rev. Robert W. Hudgell, D.D., 

Rector. 

Text: Remember the days of old, consider the years of many gene- 
rations: ask thy father, and he will shevi^ thee; thy elders, and they 
will tell thee. — Deuteronomy 32: 7. 

The celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary 
of the incorporation of the town of Danvers as a distinct 
municipality, separated from the city of Salem, marks an 
important epoch in the history of this community. The 
town authorities have requested that the observance of this 
celebration begin in the several churches of the town with 
appropriate historical sermons and religious exercises. From 
now onward until the completion of this celebration one all- 
absorbing thought will arrest the attention and form the 
theme of public discussion, and that is, the one hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary of the town of Danvers. 

This fair and beautiful town, looking even more beautiful 
than ever during these spring-tide days, enriched with its 
virgin beauty of emerald foliage and variegated flowers, is 
now putting on its brightest garments of gayest hue. Joy 
fills our hearts, and praises tune our lips, as we anticipate the 
coming festival. In a few days the tokens of festivity will 
abound on every hand and " Old Glory " will be thrown to 
the breeze. Flags of every form and device, mottoes of every 
kind and expression, will speak welcome to our guests from 
afar, from Salem, Lynn, Beverly, Peabody, Wenham, Hamil- 
ton, Topsfield, and elsewhere. Bands of inspiring music and 
the glorious outburst of bonfires and the brilliant illumina- 
tion of firework displays will invite the citizens of Danvers 
and their friends to rejoice in the one hundred and fiftieth 
anniversary of its incorporation. 



74 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

This beautiful and historic town has a territory that com- 
prises 7,394 acres, and extends nearly five miles from north 
to south, and also nearly five miles from east to west, being 
bounded by Topsfield on the north, Wenham and Beverly 
on the east, Peabody on the south, and the Ipswich River and 
Middleton on the west. It has a personal and real estate 
valuation of over $4,976,575, and its population is above 
8,300 inhabitants. The citizens of this town are engaged in 
manufacturing, farming, and various other pursuits. Dan- 
vers is composed of five important villages, namely: the 
Danvers Plains, Danversport, Tapleyville, Putnamville, and 
Danvers Centre. Its chief public buildings are the Town 
House, on the second floor of which is the Holten High School, 
the First National Bank, and the Savings Bank, the Peabody 
Library and Institute, the large and commodious public 
schools at Danvers Plains, Danversport, Tapleyville, and 
Danvers Centre, and the nine churches of the town. 

Danvers has a [history which antedates the seventeenth 
century, and in this respect the town excels many other 
towns of Massachusetts which have a larger population. 
There have been several books printed and published which 
furnish the data of historical information about our town, 
and to those books and pamphlets by men of learning and 
great ability, whom we all love, admire, and respect, you are 
referred at this time. 

There is to be also an official program of this celebration 
printed, which, no doubt, will give a full account of the history 
of our town. It is my duty and privilege to point out to you 
the spirit in which we ought to keep this celebration, and the 
manner in which we ought to express our rejoicing. First 
of all, we ought to be grateful to God that he has given to 
us the ability to appreciate the loveliness of our surroundings 
and that we have so many social joys and domestic comforts. 
Danvers is an ideal spot in which to make a home and to rear 
a family. It seems like another world — a veritable Garden of 



Historical Sermons. 75 

Eden — when one reaches its shady avenues and streets upon a 
summer's evening after spending the day in the slums of Bos- 
ton, or in some closely confined office in Boston, Lynn, or Salem. 

We ought to be grateful, too, for the educational advantages 
of this town, as well as for its social privileges. Danvers has 
an honorable past; the sons and daughters have gone out 
into every land, and in almost every instance they have been 
foremost in every intellectual, social, and religious pursuit. 
Its sons have a noble record of daring and bravery and self- 
sacrifice in defence of liberty and justice. But gratitude for 
the privileges and blessings of the past must show itself in 
gratitude to God, from whom all good things do come. We 
rejoice to-day in the fact that equality, liberty, justice, and 
fraternity have marked the civic progress of the past one 
hundred and fifty years in this town of Danvers. We are to 
be invited to listen to the loyal and patriotic speeches of those 
earnest and sincere men who have been appointed to tell us 
of our town's progress. The young and the aged alike will 
be invited to unite in celebrating this anniversary. For a 
short space of time, at least, all work must stop, and all 
business must be suspended, whilst the citizens of Danvers 
pause to rejoice in this celebration and to mark in a befitting 
and becoming manner the town's one hundred and fiftieth 
anniversary. Our rejoicing, however, should not be secular 
rejoicing only; our rejoicing should be intelligent and Chris- 
tian rejoicing in every particular, and our fullest, deepest 
gratitude should be offered to Almighty God. We ought to 
remember at all times, but especially at this celebration, that 
it is the Almighty Creator and Maker of all things who really 
gives us health of mind and body, and it is he who really 
gives us the ability to perform our daily duties, and who 
crowns our efforts with prosperity and wealth, — the inevi- 
table reward of labor. 

This celebration is important because of its moral effect 
upon the children and young people of the town. The exer- 



76 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

cises in the Institute, and the general festivity and rejoicing, 
are all calculated to inspire them with love of country and 
appreciation of the material benefits which are enjoyed by 
the residents of Massachusetts and by every American citizen. 
By answering to the call of the selectmen of Danvers to observe 
this one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, we are really 
acknowledging our allegiance to this great republic and the 
still greater principles for which it stands. We need to be 
patriotic, intensely patriotic, in these days of national great- 
ness and responsibility. We need to cultivate feelings of 
loyalty to our country and its great institutions, whether 
political, educational, or religious. In all our rejoicings 
throughout the coming celebration let us keep God before us, 
lest we are tempted to do that which might possibly sully the 
fair name and reputation of our town. Let us be merry and 
wise, not merry and foolish. Let us rejoice as men of sober- 
ness and Christian integrity in the many blessings that crown 
the years of our earthly pilgrimage. So shall the blessing of 
heaven continue to smile upon us and our children from gen- 
eration to generation. Oh, may righteousness, which ex- 
alteth a nation, reign in our midst, that in this town of Danvers 
peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, 
may be firmly established amongst us forever; that the moral 
beauty of our town may vie with its natural beauty, and 
that in every material and spiritual sense the town of Danvers 
may be as a well-watered garden, filled with the choicest 
flowers of moral and material beauty, and that its hills and 
valleys may be glad and rejoice, and blossom as the rose. 
" Time, like an ever-rolling stream, 

Bears all its sons away ; 
They fly, forgotten, as a dream 

Dies at the opening day. 

" O God, our help in ages past, 
Our hope for years to come, 
Be thou our guide while life shall last, 
And our eternal home." Amen. 



Historical Sermons. 77 

The Unitarian Church held its first services on the first 
Sunday in August, 1865. 

Dr. Putnam took for his subject: "The Patriotic and 
Heroic Element in Danvers History." 
His text was: 

"The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers." — 
1 Kings 8:57. 

It is fitting that the churches of Danvers should meet 
to-day and by appropriate services in their respective houses 
of worship introduce the week's celebration of the town's one 
hundred and fiftieth anniversary; and it seems to me that 
there is, perhaps, no more suitable theme for the hour and 
place than the patriots and heroes of our local history and 
what, in a general way, they have done for their country, or 
for truth and righteousness, in the successive periods of our 
annals. 

Hon. Charles W. Upham, in his masterly " History of 
Salem Village " (now Danvers) pays a just tribute to the high 
character of the early immigrant settlers who first preceded 
us here, and it is not too much to say that their descendants, 
whatever their faults or shortcomings, have proved worthy 
of their lineage. They have been intelligent and industrious, 
brave and enterprising, virtuous and useful. They have 
loved their native land, and in all just wars that have called 
them to arms for her defence or honor they have been ready 
for the fight, have been valiant in the action, and have counted 
not property, or comfort, or life itself, dear to them, if only 
thus they could protect or increase the common good and 
safety. They have battled courageously for the cause of 
temperance and for the rights of man; they have been stead- 
fast friends of education and the public schools; they have 
earnestly supported the church of Christ and reverenced its 
sanctities, and sires and sons, in continuous succession, have 



78 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

gone forth to regions far and near to help clear the wilderness, 
till the soil, work the mills and mines, plant free institutions, 
build mighty states, carry civilization and the gospel to needy 
souls, and thus hasten the coming of the Lord. Danvers 
has been one of the typical New England towns. Baptized 
into the Puritan faith, she is yet progressive, however con- 
servative, clinging to what was best in the old, and welcoming 
more and more what is best in the new. She has had her 
share of illustrious and venerated names. Godly men and 
saintly women, and glorious martyrs, too, have added luster 
to her calendar. In many widely scattered graves they sleep 
in peace, but the influence of their devotion to freedom and 
justice, to the nation and to God, works increasingly on for- 
evermore. 

" Brave men were living before Agamemnon," and there 
were righteous wars for Danvers, and dauntless heroes 
claimed her as their birthplace or home before she became, 
under her present name, a distinct and separate town or 
district, and before others of her sons were summoned to 
mightier conflicts and achievements. 

Long before the Revolution our fathers had considered 
well their own rights and their advancing strength, while 
enduring the heavier and heavier oppressions laid upon them 
by the British government. For a long time they shrank 
from separation, however much the thought of dependence 
upon a foreign and distant power more and more rankled 
in their hearts. But English blood was in their veins and 
they demanded justice, freedom, and equality, and increas- 
ingly protested and rebelled against the despotism that ruled 
over them with all its selfish and cruel exactions and outrages. 
In the outset, and in all that followed, it is of the first import- 
ance to fix upon and not forget the one vital prmciple that 
lay at the root of the matter and animated them from the 
beginning to the end. They were subject to a government 
in which they had no representation and voice, yet onerous 



Historical Sermons. 79 

taxes were levied upon them by their master to support him, 
and it was required and expected of them to be submissive 
and obedient to it. Laws were made for them by others, 
and authorities, not of their own choosing, were appointed 
to execute them, and still they must be loyal and dutiful and 
worshipful, acknowledging the divine right of kings, whatever 
the wrong or tyranny. This was infamous. It was a 
profanation of the everlasting moral law as written by God 
in the heart of man. Hence the loud cry of the fathers, " No 
taxation without representation. No government without 
the consent of the governed. Equal rights for all." There 
they took their stand, and for that they began and fought 
the battle of the ages. They would live and die as free men. 
It was for a principle, pure and simple, that they were ready 
and glad to shed their blood and sacrifice all else on earth 
but their sacred honor. 

Bless God that in all these eventful times Danvers was as 
true as steel to the cause of the patriots. No town wrote 
for itself a better record, and we cannot too often recall it or 
too faithfully heed its lessons. Ten years before the battle 
of Lexington her inhabitants instructed her representative, 
Thomas Porter, to use his influence to obtain a repeal of the 
Stamp Act and to assent to no taxes but such as should be 
imposed by the General Court. A little later they renewed 
their instructions and declared that taxation and represen- 
tation must go together. And this, too, they significantly 
and ominously said — and let us not forget it — that it was 
not in the power of Parliament " to make the easterly banks 
of America contiguous to the westerly bank of Great Britain, 
which banks have lain and still lie by one thousand leagues 
distant from each other, and till they can do this they 
cannot (as we humbly conceive) provide for the good govern- 
ment of his Majesty's subjects in these two distant regions 
without the establishment of a different power, both legis- 
lative and executive in each." What if Great Britain and 



80 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

America had been, not a thousand leagues alone, but ten 
thousand miles or more apart? 

In 1768 Dr. Samuel Holten, of whom we shall hear again, 
was the representative and was requested by the town to 
join a convention at Faneuil Hall, September 22 of that 
year, to consider the duties of the hour. The sessions lasted 
several days and were of great importance, our local celebrity 
taking a prominent part in the discussions, and manifesting 
that zeal and strength and wisdom that characterized him 
in all the many high state and national offices he subsequently 
filled. In provincial Congress and Continental Congress, or 
wherever else, he was an earnest and influential friend of 
liberty as well as an eminent and revered judge and states- 
man, and it is good proof of the patriotism of Danvers that 
she longer and more overwhelmingly showered her honor 
upon him than upon any other favorite she has ever voted for. 
He was her mind, her voice, her action, and her pride to the 
end of his grand career. 

Danvers was as sound on the tea question as Boston her- 
self, and when Lord North took off, in 1770, the duties on 
the imports, taxed by the law of 1767, all but the one excep- 
tion, she declared she would purchase no such English goods 
in any event, and as for English tea, her citizens would have 
nothing to do with it, and pledged themselves to do all they 
could to compel their families and persuade their friends and 
neighbors from buying it or using it. The fine and interesting 
old colonial mansion, still standing almost in sight, which 
was the home of brave Colonel Jeremiah Page of the Revo- 
lution, who said that not a bit of the article should enter 
there, is an object lesson of the then prevailing spirit of the 
place and people. The ancient fire is not yet quite extinct 
in the American heart, as the beef trust has been learning to 
its cost. 

In June, 1772, the town put its sentiments and purposes 
on record again in resolutions which it unanimously adopted 



Historical Sermons. 81 

and which earnestly inveighed against numerous arbitrary 
and despotic measures whereby the British government 
had infringed upon the constitutional rights of the colonists, 
and which looked to " the steady, firm, and united endeavors 
of all provinces on the continent for the preservation of their 
liberties." Two of the unjust and dangerous measures of 
which they particularly complained were, to quote from the 
original, " in assuming the power of legislation for the colo- 
nists," and '' in raising a revenue in the colonies without their 
consent." We are reading the solemn words of our fathers 
and of what they did at the time that tried men's souls and 
when a nation was about to be born. Nothing in the history 
of nations asks our serious attention more than this, and woe 
to us if we make light of it. Not alone elsewhere, but also 
right here in Danvers, and amongst our boasted sires, the 
mighty questions that concerned our own highest good were 
considered and debated; principles which are our very life 
blood were evolved and proclaimed, and the battle was begun. 
Here it was they highly resolved " that we will use all lawful 
endeavors for recovering, maintaining, and preserving the 
invaluable rights and privileges of this people, and stand 
ready (if need be) to risk our lives and fortunes in defence of 
those liberties which our forefathers purchased at so dear a 
rate." 

Immediately afterward. Dr. Samuel Holten, Tarrant Put- 
nam, and Capt. William Shillaber were made a committee 
to correspond with the Committee of Correspondence for 
Boston and other towns, that Danvers might take counsel 
and act in concert with the patriots at the chief center of 
influence; and to these her resolutions were at once for- 
warded, that her action and attitude might there be known. 

Doubtless it seemed a gay and festive outing to the royal 
governor of Massachusetts when, in the summer of 1774, 
he came down from Boston to the rebellious town and fixed 
his residence at the fine, stately mansion of " King Hooper " 



82 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

(Collins House) and encamped his two companies of proud 
British soldiers in the field across the way. He hardly 
succeeded, however, in awing the discontented natives into 
quiet acquiescence, and their growing restlessness and insubor- 
dination made it the part of wisdom for his troops to place 
themselves under arms and for the detachment to return, 
after a sojourn of two or three months, to the city whence 
they sallied forth. 

It was creditable to Danvers that its patriotic spirit so 
early made it a mark for the special disfavor of the royalists. 
At the beginning of the year 1775 the citizens began to supply 
themselves with firearms and knapsacks and other weapons 
and accouterments, to practice military discipline, and to 
form minute companies. Our old drummer, Richard Skid- 
more, of the New Mills, made several gun carriages, and 
concealed them at the Gardner farm in the North Fields of 
Salem. The story was soon bruited at Boston, and on 
Sunday, February 26, 1775, nearly two months before the 
battle of Lexington, Colonel Leslie and a detachment of 
British troops left Boston in a transport and, landing at 
Marblehead, marched thence through Salem on their way to 
Danvers, where they doubtless supposed the cannon were 
lodged. Arriving at the North Bridge they were intercepted 
by the gathering patriots of the old town, who raised the 
draw and made the progress of the invaders impossible. 
Major Pedrick, of Marblehead, a true Paul Revere for the 
occasion, flew horseback through the town to give the alarm, 
and the sturdy yeomanry came swarming from old Danvers 
and elsewhere and made haste to help beat back the redcoats. 
But you all know the story. 

It was a like purpose that prompted the more memorable 
sortie from Boston for Concord on the 19th of April, 1775. 
Salem and Danvers heard the guns in the early morning. 
The news spread like wildfire. Eight companies of our own 
men, numbering about three hundred, and commanded 



Historical Sermons. 83 

respectively by John Putnam, Jeremiah Page, Edmund 
Putnam, Asa Prince, Samuel Flint, Samuel Epes, Israel 
Hutchinson, and Caleb Lowe, instantly met and from their 
several districts in North and South Dan vers rushed to the fray. 
Gideon Foster, who was officer in Captain Epes' company 
and who led some of its members, together with a number of 
minute men, on that day, and who afterward, as then, rendered 
distinguished service as a hero in the Revolution and rose 
to be colonel, brigadier-general, and major-general, said that 
some of the soldiers, in their eagerness for the fight, actually 
ran nmch of the way, and accomplished their sixteen miles' 
march across the country to their destination in the space of 
four hours. Encountering the British at West Cambridge, 
on their retreat from Concord and Lexington, and there shut 
in, as in a pen, by surrounding structures, they were at the 
mercy of their more fortunate assailants, and though they 
fought with desperate courage, it was there that Danvers 
poured out her blood most freely and met a greater loss in 
men than any other town sustained at whatever point, 
Lexington alone excepted. Historians, with one accord, 
have fittingly and specially praised the patriots who with 
such alacrity and energy sped so great a distance to share 
the peril and render such a holocaust at freedom's shrine. 
The names of our martyrs, as inscribed on their monument in 
Peabody, may well be given here: Samuel Cook, Benjamin 
Daland, George Southwick, Jonathan Webb, Henry Jacobs, 
Ebenezer Goldthwaite, and Perley Putnam. They died for 
principle's sake. They died for liberty. They died for us. 
And what saying of Greek or Roman soldier was finer or nobler 
than the words of Jonathan Webb, who, soon after his mar- 
riage, left his work, donned his wedding suit, and exclaimed 
to his expostulating bride: " If I die, I must die in my best 
clothes"; or than the utterance of Samuel Flint, who, on a 
time, was asked where at a certain juncture he might be found 
grandly replied, " Where the enemy is, there you will meet 



84 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

me," only to face the foe afterwards at Stillwater and there 
lay down his precious life. 

As at Salem or Danvers, so at Concord, the British had 
failed to capture the coveted stores of the provincials. But 
not the less was King George III determined on subjugating 
our refractory su'es. His military forces in Boston were 
strengthened and more firmly intrenched, and Massachusetts 
was made to feel increasingly the rod of oppression. In her 
sore privations and deepening distress she sent out piteous 
appeals to all her towns and to the other New England colonies 
to come to her aid and deliverance, that all might make 
common cause, with one united army, for the overthrow of 
royal usurpation and the establishment of right and justice. 
The cry was heard and heeded, and not alone from all parts 
of Massachusetts, but from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, 
and Connecticut thousands of the hardy sons of liberty, in 
companies and regiments, officered by competent and resolute 
leaders, poured over hills and plains and through the woods 
and valleys to Cambridge, to report for action to Gen. Artemus 
Ward, commander-in-chief. 

It was and is the great honor of Danvers that, in the then 
approaching conflict, hers was the supreme commander and 
hero of the American forces. Born in the old town, January 
7, 1718, while yet it was Salem Village, Israel Putnam in 
his early manhood emigrated to Connecticut, which was 
henceforth his adopted state, where his remarkable energy 
and usefulness as a pioneer was long and abundantly tested 
in the clearing and tillage of his lands in Pomfret, and in his 
varied service as a citizen. Ten years of brilliant exploits 
and hard endurance as a soldier in the French and Indian 
wars gave him wonderful fame and popularity among his 
countrymen as an ardent and puissant patriot. Indignant 
at the wrongs which Great Britain was heaping upon her 
American colonies, he was among the first to resist her en- 
croachments and to bring to Boston and Massachusetts the 



Historical Sermons. 85 

effective sympathy and help of Connecticut. Hearing the 
news from Lexington, he left his plow in the furrow and 
began to organize and put in readiness for the march troops 
in the neighborhood about him, and mounted his horse and 
by day and night rode on before them, Sheridan-like, to the 
scene of danger, nearly a hundred miles away, arriving at 
Concord next morning, April 20, and there consulting with 
the Committee of Safety; then speedily to Cambridge and 
soon back to Pomfret whither he had sent letters of instruction 
and where he was needed to advise with the state authorities 
and to prepare and urge on its large quota of men; again 
at Cambridge where the storm was brewing and the hosts were 
gathering, and where the old veteran was hailed with enthu- 
siastic joy. Drake, the historian, has said that his presence 
then and there was worth ten thousand men to the cause. 
Boston, with its alien army, was invested, and Putnam with 
Connecticut and Massachusetts troops was assigned to Cam- 
bridgeport as the chief point of service and danger. On the 
evening of the 16th of June a detachment of about a thou- 
sand men, with Colonel Prescott at the head, but with General 
Putnam as general superintendent, was sent from Cambridge 
to Bunker Hill, to fortify and defend it. The man from 
Pomfret it was who, most of all, urged the enterprise and 
could brook no delay, because it was necessary, as he said, 
forthwith to call out the enemy and fight them. It was for 
this that he had strenuously contended in the council of war, 
where he carried the day and was clothed with authority. 
And his was the will, his the word, that pushed the expedition 
beyond Bunker Hill to Breed's, and that there built the 
redoubt still nearer the foe. The midnight work done, 
hostilities quickly ensued after the dawn of day. Prescott, 
with most of his men, was left to take care of his fort at the 
right. Putnam was in the open, at the eastern base of Bunker, 
and near the famous rail fence that stretched from Breed's 
to the Mystic at the left, disposing the Connecticut troops 



86 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

and the re-inforcements as they arrived, and commanding the 
whole. Against that hastily improvised and grass-stuffed 
fence and the stern provincials behind it, came on in proud 
confidence the formidable British platoons that had just 
landed at Morton's Point, a little farther east; the terrible 
tug of war, with all its slaughter and havoc, began. Hurled 
back by the invincible yeomanry with fearful loss of life, and 
enraged by their discomfiture, the smitten grenadiers of his 
Majesty soon rallied and made a still fiercer onset, only, 
however, to fare yet worse and fly in confusion before their 
rustic superiors. Then in desperation they turned aside to 
the fort, whence, after a brave defence, Prescott and his 
garrison fled for safety. The victors of the fence, seeing that 
they were in peril of being flanked and captured, and that all 
might be lost, began hurriedly to retreat and save themselves 
at least. Putnam, with brandished sword and with furious 
voice and passion, bade them make one stand more and even 
entreated them to battle on to the last. But all in vain; and 
then taking charge of what army was left, wasted and worn 
and tired as it was, he led it off to Prospect Hill, where he 
intrenched in full sight of the enemy, prepared to fight another 
day. Time allows no account of his subsequent heroic service 
at Boston, at Long Island, in New York and Philadelphia, 
in New Jersey, at the Highlands, and in Connecticut and 
other places, where in many a scene he so long continued to 
war for his country and its freedom, until, scarred and en- 
feebled, he was stricken with paralysis and mourned that he 
could no longer do and dare for the right. It was enough 
for him and for Danvers that he was the Achilles of that 
immortal day. Washington, as well as the army and the 
people, knew it, and from that time forth the Father of his 
Country gave him the most important commands at his 
disposal, as at last his farewell benediction. 

For there was the great " valley of decision." Nominally 
a defeat for the Americans, the battle was yet a victory for 



Historical Sermons. 87 

them. In view of it Franklin said: " England has lost her 
colonies forever." England herself and the world knew it. 
It was now seen and felt that the colonists could fight and 
would, nor feared the king or any earthly power. And it 
was Putnam more than any other human being that inspired 
the heroes of Charlestown Heights to the conquest. " With- 
out him," said a distinguished officer who was there, " nothing 
would have been done." With him the onward progress 
and final triumph of the cause were assured. Moses Porter 
was there as an artillerist of but nineteen years of age, last 
at the guns and specially praised for his gallantry in the 
earliest history of the battle, and destined to render a dis- 
tinguished military service to his country for nearly half a 
century in all the states and territories of the Union, and to 
win admiration and honors from all the early Presidents and 
congresses. 

Asa Prince, who, as we have seen, commanded one of our 
companies on the 19th of April, was also at Bunker Hill, 
where he manifested conspicuous coolness and courage which 
verified anew the saying, " Blood will tell." 

Gideon Foster also, being stationed at Brighton, was 
ordered by General Ward to " escort a load of ammunition 
to Charlestown," a timely supply for the soldiers; concerning 
which he himself said in his old age, " Taking the powder 
from the wagons or casks, we delivered it freely with our 
hands and our dippers to their horns, their pockets, their 
hats, and whatever else they had that would hold it." 

Col. John Mansfield's regiment was sent to Charlestown, 
but marched to Cobble Hill to protect the artillery. Israel 
Hutchinson was its lieutenant-general, Ezra Putnam its 
major, Enoch Putnam, Asa Prince, and Gideon Foster were 
among its captains, and Job Whipple and Haffield White 
among its lieutenants — all brave Dan vers men ; and doubt- 
less others of its officers and many of its privates belonged 
to the town. I do not find that they were any of them 



88 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

actually in the fight, but if not they were evidently on service 
near at hand, and from all that we know of them they would 
gladly have been with their brothers in the strife. But not 
a few of them, with large numbers more who survived that 
day of days, were reserved for marches and struggles yet to 
come. 

And now the siege of Boston became more effective, antl 
on the 17th of March the city was evacuated by the royal 
forces, who soon sailed away, General Putnam, in command 
of several regiments, entering its gates and taking possession 
of all its posts amidst the acclamations of the people. Wash- 
ington is soon at New York; Putnam is in command at Long 
Island, fighting the British and the Hessians; Hutchinson 
greatly assists the marvelous retreat across the East River; 
Moses Porter, with General Knox's artillery, is still at his 
cannon, all sharing the fortunes of the burdened but mighty 
chief. 

More and more independence is the watchword. The 
sages declare it, and the Old Bell rings it out at Philadelphia, 
proclaiming that the nation is born, and making jubilant the 
people throughout the land. The ages have struggled and 
longed to see that day, but had died without the sight. Now, 
at last, it was declared in the new and rising western world, 
" that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by 
their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among 
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to 
secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, 
deriving their just power from the consent of the governed " ; 
that " the history of the present king of Great Britain is a 
history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in 
direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over 
these states"; that "he has plundered our seas, ravaged 
our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our 
people"; that " he has erected a multitude of new offices 
and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and 



Historical Sermons. 89 

eat out of our substance." That he has assented to acts 
"for quartering large bodies of troops among us"; for 
imposing taxes upon us without our consent; " for depriving 
us, in many cases, of tlie benefit of trial by jury"; "for 
suspending our own legislatures and investing others with 
power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever "; and that 
" he is still continuing his work of death, desolation, and 
tyranny, scarcely paralleled in the most barbaric ages and 
totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation." ..." We, 
therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, 
in General Congress assembled, ... do solemnly publish and 
declare that these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free 
and independent states. . . . And for the support of this 
declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine 
Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our 
fortunes, and our sacred honor." 

Danvers, by vote, unanimously and earnestly approved 
the Declaration, and ordered it to be entered, at length, in 
the records of the town. She had long been growing ripe 
for the hour and event, and now she was in complete accord 
with what had been done and what it was proposed to do; 
and again great Dr. Holten reflected her mind and heart as 
he wrote to a friend from the Council Chamber in Boston, 
July 15, 1776, saying, " The Congress have sent in their 
Declaration. . . . Independence is the best news I ever 
heard, and as I trust our cause is just, we ought to put our 
trust in the God of armies and not fear what man can do in 
an unjust cause." 

It remained for Danvers and all the towns and cities of 
the colonies to make that Declaration a glorious reality. 
Would that we knew all the regiments or companies in Essex 
County in which the old town was represented, but from a 
partial study of the matter years ago and now, I get at this, 
at least, which seems to me important to our local history. 
One of the foremost soldiers of this region in the Revolution 



90 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

was Colonel Ebenezer Francis, of Beverly, whither he removed 
from Medford, his native place, in 1764. From August to 
September, 1776, he commanded a regiment on Dorchester 
Heights, but in November of that year he was authorized to 
raise another, known as the Eleventh Massachusetts, which 
served through the war. It marched to Ticonderoga in 1777, 
but retreated from that point before the advance of the enemy's 
formidable force under Burgoyne. On reaching Hubbardton, 
near Whitehall, he found himself face to face with the enemy, 
and was killed in the fierce encounter that ensued. John 
Francis, his worthy brother, was an adjutant in his regiment 
and now became adjutant in the regiment of Benjamin Tupper 
and continued to be a rising officer for the first six years of 
the war. Colonel Tupper, afterward general, had already 
distinguished himself in the service from 1775 to this time, 
and now was under General Gates of the Northern Army. 
In 1778 he was with Washington in the battle of Monmouth. 
In 1780 he was at West Point, preparing and stretching the 
great chain across the Hudson. In 1781 General Stark, 
threatened by the Indians on the northern frontier, sent for 
reenforcements. Tupper's regiment and another from New 
York went to the rescue, but while they were waiting for 
the enemy's appearance, news came that Cornwallis had 
surrendered at Yorktown, and though the end of the war was 
thus brought in view, yet the Massachusetts men remained 
on guard. I think we have here, in outline, or in a general 
way, a picture of no small share of the service and experience 
of the soldiers who were first under Colonel Francis and who 
then, after his death, were under Colonel Tupper. 

The expedition sent to Rhode Island to rid it of British 
troops in 1778 was commanded by Gen. John Sullivan. One 
of his regiments was that of Col. Nathaniel Wade, of Ipswich, 
three of whose captains were Simeon Brown, born in Danvers, 
but living in Beverly, and Jeremiah Putnam and Thomas 
Symonds, both of our town, while all had men who belonged 



Historical Sermons. 91 

to it also. The troops rendered faithful service and were 
highly praised in general orders, however unsuccessful the 
enterprise, owing chiefly to a destructive rainstorm and the 
desertion of the French allies at a critical juncture. After 
their year's service, Symonds and his company joined the 
famous brigade of General Glover, the great hero of Marble- 
head, and shared largely of his deeds at various scattered 
scenes — sometimes at winter the soldiers themselves being 
without shoes or stockings. Such was the price of liberty, 
and Danvers paid her part. 

And yet again it was the very next winter, so little did the 
sons of Essex fear the cold and snows and hardships and 
perils by the way, that Haffield White, another familiar 
friend, started from Danvers with the first pioneer band for 
Marietta on the Ohio, crossed the dreary wastes, passed over 
the rugged heights of the Alleghanies, swept down the river to 
their destination, and with a later Hartford company that 
joined them, laid there the cornerstone of the vast northwest 
portion of the great republic. The leader of the division 
and some of his bold and enterprising men were from both 
parts of the old town, and many others afterward left our 
places here to share their fortunes there, braving the elements 
and the obstacles, fighting the Indians, and opening the 
wilderness, and undergoing unnumbered trials and troubles 
that they might plant the homes and schools and churches of 
a Christian civilization, where from immemorial time had 
roamed but beasts of prey and the wild, untutored children 
of the forest. They and their scattered descendants have 
been the builders of states that helped to make the nation free 
indeed, and that held the Union forever as one and indivisible 
when rebellion struck the flag. Rufus Putnam, foremost 
in the movement, and father of the state of Ohio, if not a son 
of Danvers, was certainly her grandson, and Senator Hoar, 
who knows all the history, as he seems to know every- 
thing else, has not exaggerated one whit the merit and 



92 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

preeminence of this illustrious engineer, soldier, statesman, 
and patriot. 

The wisdom and justice of the War of 1812 were doubted 
by a large portion of the American people, who were as patri- 
otic and intelligent as any who favored it. The general voice 
of the town, but especially of her leading citizens, was against 
it. Yet many of her brave sons gladly served in manning 
the forts and protecting the towns along our seacoast, as 
against any attacks that might be made by the English navy ; 
Capt. Jesse Putnam and his company at Salem, with Sergeant 
Warren Porter, afterward colonel of artillery at Beverly, and 
alarm lists at New Mills and South Danvers, headed by such 
old veterans as Samuel Page and Gideon Foster, and number- 
ing and packed with scores of their townsmen of old, familiar 
and honored names; and plenty more of the regular army 
or of fresh recruits who served in many a scene afar. 

But if Danvers had nothing else to put an effectual stop 
to England's long-continued and arbitrary and ruthless 
seizure and impressment of our sailors into her own naval 
service, which good citizens thought could be done through 
wise and peaceful negotiations, what Gen. Moses Porter 
accomplished to make the war a success and remedy forever 
the wrong, was glory enough. He had won his spurs at 
Bunker Hill while yet a youth, as we have seen. He battled 
throughout the Revolution and was wounded at the Brandy- 
wine. Subsequently he fought the Indians like a lion under 
Anthony Wayne and other noted commanders at the West, 
until the great confederacy of savage tribes was broken up 
and the tide of immigration began to flow from the East 
and make the vast prau-ie bud and blossom as the rose. Next 
we find him taking possession of the forts on the great north- 
ern frontier, and then far down the Mississippi and up the 
Red River to keep at bay and rout the hostile Spaniard. 
Signs of the coming War of 1812 signalized his return to the 
North, where for several years he was repairing the old forts 



Historical Sermons. 93 

and planting batteries all along the Atlantic from Passama- 
quoddy Bay to New York. Soon after the declaration of war 
he was in command of Boston Harbor, southern Massachu- 
setts, Rhode Island, and parts of Connecticut, as colonel, and 
a little later was under Dearborn on the Niagara River, 
where he displayed undaunted courage in the capture of Fort 
George, for which he was made a brigadier. He accompanied 
Wilkinson's memorable but ill-fated expedition down the 
St. Lawrence, and still added new luster to his enviable 
reputation, and then from its dreary winter quarters in Lower 
Canada he was ordered to Norfolk, Va., where, during the 
long, long sununer of 1814 he still held the fort as the proud 
and powerful squadrons of the enemy hovered around and 
meant to pounce upon their prey. It was the one great drama 
of his life. Intense heat and dreadful ravages of disease 
daily decimated his ranks, two or three thousands of his 
soldiers sometimes lying sick and helpless in camp, while 
yet he was obliged ever and anon to draw from Virginia and 
North Carolina fresh quotas to make good his force of ten 
thousand men, training and disciplining the sound and 
healthy for effective service in any hour of need. He was 
master of the situation, and the British saw it and at length 
sailed away and left him victor. And at last it was seen and 
acknowledged that if General Porter had been placed in 
command of Washington and its department, as the Secretary 
of War and others wished, that city had never been captured 
and burned by the British, and the national disgrace could 
have been averted. The mighty hero of forts and frontiers 
sleeps in his humble grave yonder, but America never had a 
truer or more intrepid soldier. He served his country in that 
great capacity, in literally all its states and territories, with 
endless marches, watches, and exposures, and with patient 
endurance and consummate daring, and was honored of all 
the early Presidents and congresses and retained in every 
peace establishment; and after various subsequent commands 



94 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

of large territorial departments into which the country was 
divided when the War of 1812 was ended, in 1815, he died 
in 1822, and Boston closed its shops and stores as her people 
thronged to his mournful, public funeral. To no one should 
Danvers build a noble and suitable monument more than to 
this loyal and patriotic hero of nearly half a century, devoted 
to " the land of the free and the home of the brave." He 
still remains one of those whom Kossuth, when he visited this 
country, called " the unrecognized heroes of America." But 
he should no longer be that in the town that gave him 
birth. 

In Danvers, as in many other towns in Massachusetts, anti- 
slavery sentiment and principle took early root and steadily 
grew in strength and influence to the far-off end. It was a 
fine heroism that marked the old abolitionists in their uncom- 
promising and unyielding contention for the right, and in 
their willingness to accept poverty, reproach, ridicule, ostra- 
cism, and imprisonment itself in their efforts to set free the 
oppressed. 

Danvers knew it all, and no town more. Even as far back 
as the time of the Mexican War, in 1846-7, waged avowedly 
for the extension and perpetuation of slavery, she set her 
seal of condemnation upon the abominable crusade, would 
give it no support, and would have nothing to do with it, except 
to execrate it. Listen to the resolutions which John W. 
Proctor, friend of temperance, education, and freedom, and 
no unworthy son of stalwart Capt. Johnson Proctor, of the 
Revolution, descendant of brave old John Proctor, martyr 
on Gallows Hill, offered to the citizens in town meeting as- 
sembled, December 16, 1847, and which were passed by a 
unanimous and emphatic vote: 

" Resolved, as our opinion, that the wau now pending between the 
United States of America and the United States of Mexico was wrong 
in its origin, has been wrong in its progress, and will be altogether 
wrong in its continuance; and that no acquisition of glory to our 



Historical Sermons. 95 

country by our valiant and victorious armies will counterbalance in 
any measure a warfare so unjust and unnatural. 

" Resolved, that we view with fearful apprehension the disposition 
to acquire territory by conquest for any purpose whatever, how- 
ever it may be in conformity with the usages of nations, and unless 
this disposition in our government shall be seasonably restrained, 
we fear it will be ominous of a dissolution of the Union. 

" Resolved, that while wc acknowledge all men to be born free and 
equal, we cannot consistently with this principle do anything whatever 
that shall have a tendency to extend that most disgraceful feature 
of our mstitution, domestic slavery. 

" Resolved, that justice demands the immediate withdrawal of 
our armies from the territory of the Republic of Mexico. 

" Resolved, that our senators and representatives in the state 
legislature are hereby requested to use all lawful influence in theu* 
power to bring this unrighteous war to a speedy close." 

The unanimous adoption of these resolutions by the citizens 
of Danvers, after a full and free discussion of the subject to 
which they relate, was one of the grandest and best things the 
old town has ever done. It was in hne with all her previous 
history, and so far as I can learn only about five of her sons, 
from North and South Danvers both, found their way to the 
war, not, it may well be believed, because they were friends 
of the slave system, but rather from a love of adventure, or 
from a misapprehension of the purposes or nature of the enter- 
prise, or from a false idea of what constitutes the real glory 
of a nation. But the town itself knew very well what it 
was about, knew what was intended by the party in power, 
knew what was becoming to a republic like ours, and accord- 
ingly meant to do what was just and right. It was not hers, 
thank God, to lift the heathenish cry, " Our country, right 
or wrong." A most immoral sentiment, if the shibboleth is 
meant to sanction, encourage, and support the country, 
undiscriminatingly, in wickedness as well as in the way of 
righteousness. Who would urge on a father or friend, because 
the highwayman or robber or traitor or murderer is his father 
or friend? Who would not stay his hand and incite and help 



96 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

him to better courses all the more because he is his father or 
friend? One eternal law binds the nation as well as the indi- 
vidual, and true patriotism and heroism will seek only to 
inspire and aid one's own country to cease to do evil and to 
learn to do well. " Our country, right or wrong " — it is 
an appeal designed to blot out moral distinction and it 
has been the crime of tyranny and corruption in all the ages 
and the wide world over. 

And what Danvers was at Lexington and Bunker Hill and 
all through the Revolution and in " old anti-slavery days," 
that she was, preeminently, when, in the interests and for the 
furtherance of what John Wesley justly called the " sum of 
all villanies," the slave power struck at the Union itself and its 
starry flag, and a million patriots sprang to arms to smite the 
monster, and leave to futurity the constellated inheritance 
from the fathers — the galaxy unbroken and its effulgence 
undimmed. The local record is too much in the fresh, per- 
sonal remembrance of multitudes still in the flesh, to need 
much detailed recapitulation here. Here, and all around us, 
are men, and women, too, who saw and were a very part of the 
scenes when, at the first meetings of the town which were 
called to take action, her citizens rallied with their old-time 
zeal for the country and put in train her contributions to the 
cause, and when, at the village square, the throngs again 
assembled to say good-bye to Captain Fuller's and Captain 
Putnam's companies, and crown them with their blessing as 
they left the dear mother of them all for fields of conflict and 
glory; and then as often as the painful and anxious years 
went by and called for warriors more, how from the homes 
and farms and shops and stores the " boys in blue " came 
pouring in to offer themselves and their all in sacrifice, to go 
forth and fight and even to die for the nation's weal and honor. 
Well nigh eight hundred of various nationalities from the old 
town alone enlisted for service on land or sea, reminding us 
of April 19, 1775, when men rushed from New Mills Village 



Historical Sermons. 97 

for the enemy in such numbers that not one was left behind. 
Call over the long list of the names of the immortal battlefields 
where our brothers fought and so many of them fell, and where 
was Danvers not? How vast the cemetery where her martyrs 
rest! They died that we might live and be blessed. They 
" died to make men free." They, too, rescued the Union, 
cut up slavery by the roots, and made the Declaration of 
Independence the law of the land as not before. They 
manfully and invincibly bore their part in the mightiest and 
holiest war that was ever waged. It broke the shackles of 
millions of downtrodden children of God and lifted them up 
to the level of common citizenship, and made resplendent the 
redeemed republic that shone at last for all. 

Nor was it otherwise when, but a few years ago the cry for 
the deliverance of Cuba, and " Remember the Maine," rent 
the air, and all was stir, and tumult and cheers and strains 
of music, and red, white, and blue again, as Captain Chase 
and his boys marched through the streets and set forth for 
the war of humanity, as we all believed it to be. It was the 
same old spirit of liberty and justice once more, with never 
a thought of anything else but the vindication of the nation's 
self-respect and the emancipation of the long-oppressed 
Queen of the Antilles. If she is at last free and independent, 
with no cruel tax or burden laid upon her to repress her 
aspirations and energies and make her progress and success 
impossible, or if we refuse to keep hold of her relentlessly nor 
hope or seek to devour her at length by slow and deadening 
and fatal processes, as the snake devours the toad or rabbit, 
but are true to our solemn pledge and promise of self-govern- 
ment, then give the gallant volunteers the glory, nor with- 
hold it from those who, in the high places, gave their vote 
and word of honor for her liberation, and have been her 
generous and ungrudging and steadfast friends from first to 
last. Nor theirs the fault, who nobly went forth to battle 
for the right, if through other and more powerful agencies 



98 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

and influences than their own, what was ostensibly meant 
for good is made to work for evil. The rank and file are not 
supposed to know all the secret intents and machinations of 
the ruling power. 

" Theirs not to make reply, 
Theirs not to reason why, 
Theirs but to do and die." 

From the reconstruction days down to the time of our war 
upon Spain and the Philippines, the great republic witnessed, 
it may be, the zenith of her greatness and glory. No nation 
in history, either in ancient or modern times, had ever been so 
favored of God, or was ever so splendidly situated and con- 
ditioned; none so free and fair and prosperous and hopeful. 
Not a slave clanked his chains. The Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, with all its eternal truths and principles, was a 
supreme and living fact and reality. The Constitution had 
been brought into conformity to it, and now indeed was what 
Gladstone called it, the greatest and best thing ever struck 
out of the brain of man. The counsels of the peerless sages 
and patriots of our remoter past were reverenced and followed 
still, and still were our strength and safety. Peace smiled 
upon the land. The hum of honest, intelligent, cheerful, 
rewarding industry was everywhere. The growth of our 
schools and colleges and churches and charities and civilization 
was the wonder of the world. Immeasurable and exhaustless 
wealth was locked up in our hills and mountains, and only 
asked the hand of enterprise to seek it and take it. What 
lordly rivers and magnificent lakes, what boundless forests 
and prairies, what interminable coast lines, kissed by the 
waves of what vast and joyous seas and oceans! What 
healthful climates and what a diversified and enrapturing 
scenery from north to south and east to west! And what 
advancing commerce and influence and friendship with all 
the countries of the globe! And what a peaceful mission of 



Historical Sermons. 99 

beneficence and religion was opening for us to all the world! 
Here, without boasting, was the beacon light for the nations. 
Here the one great refuge of the struggling, suffering tribes 
and races. Here was the fultilhnent of the dreams and visions 
and hopes and prayers of the centuries. Prophets and bards 
and reformers and toilers innumerable, in all the ages, had 
longed to behold the day, but had died without the sight. 

What insanity was it, that seized " Time's noblest off- 
spring," what was the fatal draught that made it drunk, that 
all at once its population of seventy-five million strong, so 
signally prospered and blest, and so boastful of their exalted 
wisdom and virtue, and of their preeminent love of liberty 
and humanity, should disregard their most sacred traditions, 
usages, and principles, and send forth their buccaneering 
expeditions to the uttermost ends of the earth, to pounce 
upon poor and defenseless multitudes who had never injured 
them and scarcely knew them at all, and whose only fault 
was that for successive years they had courageously fought 
and suffered, like our own fathers, and not wholly in vain, to 
throw off the yoke of oppression and, like them, to be free? 
And then, having bought them of their ejected and tyrannous 
enemy (like chattels at two dollars a head) to proceed to 
demand, by proclamation of sovereignty, their abject sul)- 
mission and loyalty to our rule under penalty of forcibls 
compulsion, asking nor receiving nor caring for their consent ; 
then, because of their just contention for the " inalienable 
right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness " which 
we had claimed and conquered for ourselves, to rob them of 
their territory, to drive them in terror from their peaceful 
homes, to burn their houses and villages and lay waste their 
pleasant places, to chase them through the jungles and across 
the rivers and into the mountains, to mangle and torture 
and kill them with barbarities that rival the horrors of the 
Spanish Inquisition itself, to betray them and then brand 
them as " rebels " and ** traitors " and strangle their fair 



100 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

and rising and most promising republic in the far-off Orient, 
and hold them as our own subjects, with all the limitations 
and disabilities and degradation which infernal ingenuity 
could devise, after having used them as helpful and trusting 
allies until we had gained the coveted vantage ground and 
needed their aid no longer, and finally to swarm their rich 
and fruitful islands with rapacious office holders and fortune 
seekers and parasites who might grab the franchises and 
riot in the rule and plunder, and devour the substance and 
life-blood of the people; and mockingly to call all this the 
blessings of good government and of civil and religious liberty 
and of Christian civilization, as George III called his cruelties 
and deviltries towards our fathers! 

In the prosecution of this work we have riddled into tatters 
the Declaration of Independence and pronounced it an 
" absurdity " and a " lie "; we have broken and defamed 
the Constitution of the wise and good and made it an instru- 
ment and stronghold of a rampant imperialism; we have 
thrown the protection of the stars and stripes over slavery and 
polygamy, as at Sulu, and over vile resorts and dens of shame, 
as at Manila, and in ways unnumbered we have stained and 
dishonored forever the beautiful and holy flag of the free; 
we have ruined or sacrificed many thousands of our own 
brave men, and maimed or slaughtered ten times as many 
of the victims of our greed of land and empire and of gold and 
blood; we have squandered six hundred million dollars of 
the nation's money and involved ourselves in expenditures 
to come, and in difficulties and embarrassments and perils, 
which present a problem beyond the capacity of our wisest 
and greatest statesmen to solve; we have reversed and 
scorned the Golden Rule, and have done to others that which 
we would not have others do unto ourselves; we have made 
havoc of the Ten Commandments of God and trampled under 
foot the lessons and precepts of his holy, loving, and merciful 
Christ; we have talked of God as the heavenly Father of all. 



Historical Sermons. 101 

and of all men as brethren, and of love to God and of love to 
man as the fulfilling of the law, and yet have waged a ruthless 
war of conquest and extermination against millions of the 
universal brotherhood, and denounced and treated them as 
the offscouring of the earth, and shouted and gloried over 
their agonies and sorrows; when, had we been true to our 
professions and mission, we should have been, in the very 
spirit of Jesus, their angels of pity and comfort and love 
and deliverance, and won their everlasting gratitude and 
friendship, instead of now their fear, distrust, and undying 
hate and contempt. 

It is the crime of the ages. In view of all that we were and 
professed to be among the nations of the earth, and all the 
high distinctions and endless favors with which God had 
crowned us from the beginning on to near the dawn of the 
twentieth century of his grace, you may ransack all history 
and you shall find nothing so bad as this. It is the latest and 
guiltiest crucifixion yet of the Lord of glory and the Saviour 
of mankind. There is no excuse or defense for it, no justi- 
fication or palliation ; no plea of ignorance, or thoughtlessness, 
or party, or popularity, or fashion, or respectability, or ways 
of the world ; no mumbled creed or outward sanctimonious 
form or ceremony, or worship in the sanctuaries or out of 
them, that will avail at the judgment hour to which we 
all hasten. " Then shall they also answer saying. Lord, 
when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or 
naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee ? 
Then shall he answer them, saying. Verily I say unto you. 
Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did 
it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punish- 
ment: but the righteous into life eternal." " Though hand 
join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished." " God 
is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
also reap." 

The Bible declares it, from Genesis to Revelation, The 



102 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

whole history and moral government of the ages attest it. 
The doom of proud and guilty and ruined and buried empires 
proclaims it. And God is just, and " God is true, though 
every man be a liar "; and Christ Jesus said, " Heaven and 
earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." 
"Believest thou this f " 

No time now for mere denunciation and bitter taunts. 
These do but little good. Time rather for reason and con- 
science and self-examination; and time for repentance and 
works meet for repentance, and for the prayer of the text: 
" The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers." 
Hold to the fathers. Hold to God. 

" The fathers had not all of Thee; 
New births are in Thy grace : 
All open to our souls shall be 
Thy glory's hiding-place." 

But our patriot sires believed in God, and loved truth, 
justice, righteousness, and liberty. They had " the courage 
of their convictions," and established the freest and best 
government the world had ever seen. The principles which 
inspired and controlled them were of God and are as immu- 
table as his eternal laws. They are the seed and life, without 
which nations die. Hold them fast. Hold to the fathers 
to whom they were so dear and divine here in Danvers. Hold 
to their Declaration of Independence. Do not honor such 
ancestors with your lips, while yet you dishonor them in your 
actions. Strew not their graves with flowers while yet dis- 
own or repudiate the words, the deeds, the sentiments, and 
the example that made them what they were in life and 
death. Keep the old town true to her lineage and noble 
record and keep her ancient fires still brightly burning. A 
thousand voices from out the past two hundred and fifty 
years bid us to stand and be strong and earnest and conse- 
crated in her behalf, and to faithfully do our humble part in 



The Bonfire. 103 

recalling the country of our love from its sin and danger, and 
in making her, not the delight of kings and emperors and 
sultans and despots, but once more and increasingly the joy 
and benison of the whole earth. And to God be all the praise. 
Amen. 

Rev. AV. S. Nichols and Rev. Eugene De Normandie also 
took part in this service. 

The Methodist Church was organized in 1871. 

The pastor, Rev. George E. Sanderson, preached a sermon 
at the morning service on " Our Debt to the Past; Our Duty 
to the Present." 

At the evening service the following program was carried 
out: 

Special music by the choir. Historical addresses: Rev. 
William M. Ayres; subject: " Witchcraft in Danvers. Herbert 
J. Chase, principal of Danvers High School; subject : " Present 
Day Problems." Hon. Howard K. Sanderson, postmaster 
of Lynn; subject: " Danvers at the Battle of Lexington." 

A delegation from Ward Post 90, G. A. R., was present by 
special invitation. 

MONDAY, JUNE 16. 
The Bonfire. 

With the evening of Sunday multitudes of people began 
to gather at Berry Park from every quarter to see the kindling 
of the great bonfire that was to bring in the first secular day 
of the celebration. They were 10,000, and it may be 15,000, 
in number. The great crowd was both good humored and 
orderly. Fine music was furnished by the Salem Cadet Band. 
The band stand was brilliantly lighted with electric lights, 
a large design in the shape of a star being conspicuous. At 
the entrance to the park the word " Welcome " was shown 



104 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

in electric lights, and the tiny glowing bulbs also lighted the 
grounds from the entrance to the band stand. The mate- 
rials of the great pile were railroad ties, together with multi- 
tudes of barrels of various sizes, and of previous uses and 
occupations, tending, with many of them, toward rapid con- 
flagration. They had been gathered and set up with labor 
and zeal and with skill by the committee having the matter 
in charge, under the leadership of its vigorous and enthusiastic 
chairman, Thomas E. Tinsley. The structure when it was 
done was of an aspect so unique and so impressive that it 
might almost have seemed befitting that it should itself have 
stood as a monument of the occasion. 

But it had its immediate end and use. William A. Berry, 
carpenter and builder, who was perhaps the ranking architect 
in its construction, had prepared passageways and appliances 
for lighting it at its top, and he was ready with the fire and 
the red powders. When the hour of midnight struck, the 
flames flashed from the summit and in an instant the vivid 
light covered the sky and illuminated the fields and the 
horizon far off on every side. The cheers of the people went 
up with the roar of the fire. This opening signal and display 
of the celebration was recognized of all as most creditable 
to those that had arranged it, and as altogether becoming 
to the occasion itself. 

The heat of the blaze was sharply felt a quarter of a mile 
away, while the heavens were illuminated to such an extent 
against the dull clouds that the famous yellow day of a num- 
ber of years ago was recalled to mind. One was able to read 
a newspaper a mile away from the park in directions in which 
the light was unobstructed. People who had followed the 
annual bonfires in Salem, on Gallows Hill, each Fourth of 
July, said the Danvers' fire far surpassed any they had seen. 

It was not the purpose of the builders of the bonfire to 
supersede the daybreak, but the tall flame was slow to sink, 
and the multitude dispersed with satisfaction, but not with 



Peahody Institute. 105 

speed, and many of them saw, what some may seldom behold, 
the unapproachable wonder and glory of the kindling daylight. 

Notwithstanding the wakeful night, with Monday morning 
the town was early astir. The bells from all the steeples 
greeted the sunrise. The streets were gay with decoration. 
The hearts of the people were lightened with grateful memories 
and with thankfulness. 

At ten o'clock in the forenoon there was gathered in the 
hall of the Peabody Institute a large and representative 
assembly of citizens of Danvers, of former residents, and of 
friends from the surrounding towns. Mr. Rice, chairman 
of the General Committee, presided. The meeting at the 
Institute was concluded in time to allow of a slight inter- 
mission before the banquet, which was served at the Town 
Hall at 1.30. The other events of the afternoon were an 
entertainment for children and band concerts. The second day 
was brought to a close by a ball in the Town Hall, the hall 
being cleared of its tables in ample time by vigorous work 
under the direction of the chairman of the two committees. 

The program at the commemorative meeting at Peabody 
Institute was as follows: 

Chorus. " 'Tis Morn " Geibel 

first church chorus. 

Prayer. rev. harry c. adams. 

Response. " Nearer, my God, to Thee." 

MALE QUARTET. 

Rev. Harry C. Adams. Alex. Gardner, Jr. 

John E. Hanson. Elmer E. Bedell. 

Introductory Address. 

rev. charles b. rice, d.d. 

Contralto Solo. " The Promise of Life " Cowen 

mrs. florence bradstreet. 
Historical Address. ezra d. hines. 

Chorus. " God of Our Fathers " Schnecker 

first church chorus. 
Poem. miss Josephine e. roache. 

Hymn. "Sons: of Praise." 



106 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

The opening address of Mr. Rice here follows: 

Ladies and Gentlemen, — It is my pleasant office, in behalf 
of my associates upon the committee of the town, and in 
behalf of the citizens of the town of Danvers, to announce 
this public opening to-day of our commemorative service 
for our one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. It is a whole- 
some human instinct which makes us mark these memorial 
days and years. In the reviewing of the times and the lives 
that are past, our own lives are strengthened, and our hopes 
and purposes for the years to come are made more clear and 
bright. 

The history of our town will be set before us this morning 
in its outlines and in as much of detail as the time will allow 
by one well fitted in tastes and capacity for such a service. 
A glance only toward the things past and the things around 
us may show w^hat occasions we have for cheerfulness and 
congratulation. 

Our town is well placed. It is easy of access from large 
centers of population and large seats of industry. It is 
healthful, according to the measure of New England towns. 
Its soil, for the most part, is strong, easily worked, and fruit- 
ful. Its natural features are pleasing to the eye. It has 
variety in surface and scenery. It has its trees, planted of 
nature and of man. From its higher lands we look eastward 
to the blue ocean and westward to the tops of Wachusett 
and Monadnock. We have here together the relics of age 
and the signs of progress. We have houses of the seventeenth 
and of the twentieth centuries. We have the smooth stone 
highway, and we have still the bridle path, almost, of the 
fathers. We cannot pass through any bordering town by 
roads that are better than ours, and we cannot come from 
any quarter into Danvers and find the driving the worse as 
we enter it. We make our own light to light our roads by 
night, and to sell. The water that flows under our streets 
is of the best that can be had, and it serves for drink to many. 



Introductory Address. 107 

Our schoolhouses are mostly new and they are partly paid 
for. They are oi)en to all the winds of modern style, and 
every boy within thoni may breathe his appointed thirty-five 
cubic feet of air in each minute or perish in the attempt. The 
schools are well taught and well filled. The proportion cf 
our children that receive the benefit of the high .school course 
is large, much beyond what is common throughout the state. 
Our taxes are as large as we wish to make them. Public 
concerns are kept close to the public mind, and to the minds of 
individuals. Caucuses are not wholly forgotten. Town 
meetings are fairly well attended, and the time for them is 
not altogether begrudged. Discussion in them is usually 
discriminating, enlightening, and fair. If ever it is not, the 
failure to make it so is talked of and condenmed. Our town 
meeting does us good both by the good that is brought out 
in it and by the condemnation that is put upon whatever 
evil in the meeting the meeting itself may bring to light. 
We are not ashamed of our numerous town meetings; we are 
proud of them. We are in no haste to grow so big that we 
must let go our hold on these ancient and illuminating liber- 
ties and fall away into the darkness and dullness of city life. 

Our town has been well occupied by its inhabitants. It 
was planted with a strong stock of men. At first they were 
sometimes, upon provocation, ill-natured and quarrelsome, 
but they softened gradually into good temper and settled 
mostly into good sense. There grew up here a community 
full of personal purpose and individuality, but full also of 
public spirit. I think our town has continued to be marked 
distinctively in this way by clear strength of personality and 
by a comfortable fellowship in public life. 

Our people at first were mostly of English origin, and for 
two centuries there were few besides. Since the beginning 
of the third century there has come to us a great immigration 
from a sister British isle. These two streams of life are not, 
in our town, running very far apart and to contrary ends. 



108 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

To an extent much beyond what may be true in many places 
we are becoming one people. I have heard the Pilgrim and 
the Puritan virtues acknowledged, and the great Mayflower 
constitutional compact extolled by a Danvers lawyer to whose 
ancestors the Puritan or even the Pilgrim would not have been 
hospitable. If the best account were wanted of the life and 
public service of our most distinguished man of the former 
generations I suppose it might be given by another Danvers 
lawyer whose forefathers were in the Emerald Isle when 
Samuel Holten lived and died. From whatever quarter we 
have come we know and value the good of the past, and we 
shall go happily and hopefully together toward the better 
things, we trust, of the future. 

There were troubles here in the early times which have 
left a lasting remembrance. They came by a strange mis- 
reading of Scripture and by an astonishing lapse of reason, 
and by a deplorable failure in Christian charity. But this 
misery of the witchcraft was worse in other lands than here. 

In the times that have followed there have been wars and 
successions of public perils through which our people have 
passed in common with others in the province, the state, and 
the nation. They have borne their share in the general 
burdens with intelligence and courage and vigor. 

Every age has had its clouds and storms, but to the present 
time the storms have been as the storms of summer and not 
as the storms of winter. The sunshine has broken through 
the clouds and they have rolled to the east with the rainbows 
on them. The earth has worn its robes of green and of gold 
with the spring-time and the harvest, and the cheerful labors 
and hopes of man have not failed. We rejoice in the measure 
of prosperity given us and in the common blessings which 
we have all enjoyed. We dwell together in our town with 
much good will in our hearts toward one another, and we 
bear together in patience and sympathy and hope the inevi- 
table burdens of human life. We recount gratefully the 



Introductory Address. 109 

mercies of God from the long generations past. We invoke 
his favor on all our neighborly and brotherly households 
through the generations long to come. 

So we welcome to-day our friends who come to greet us. 
And thus we, who are always here at home, welcome each 
other in this anniversary assembly. 

We have practical ends now in mind. It is the purpose 
of our gathering, and the object in reality of this entire 
observance, to improve and brighten the tone of human life 
among us. We review and consider whatever has given 
worth to the lives of the men of the times that are past, that 
these befitting traits of manhood may be the more appreciated 
and nourished. We trust that our town will always be a 
place of diffused intelligence, of personal independence, and 
of cherished and considerate public life. We hope that the 
man of Danvers will know his rights and will hold on upon 
them, and will be ready to give them up when he should. 
We wish to have him careful about taxation, and glad to pay 
his taxes. We want him to be ready to talk — as he certainly 
will be — and willing to listen to the talk of other men. We 
desire that he should be thrifty, and that he should care for 
manhood more than for thrift or money. And we expect 
that he will bear his part in all our common life, in a generous 
and manly way, with stoutness and certainty. 

These things we think have been somewhat distinctive 
here in the past. They should abide and increase. We ring 
now our bells and light our fires and read our history; we sit 
down at one table together, and we march with music, that 
the good things in the lives of men and women of this town 
may continue and abound, that the place may be loved of 
its children, and that the children may be better than any 
of their fathers. 



1 10 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

HISTORICAL ADDRESS OF EZRA D. HINES, ESQ. 
Early Inhabitants. 

In the beginning of the seventeenth century, over the 
fields, up the hills, along the valleys, through the woods, 
adown the streams and rivers, of the territory which is now 
Danvers, wandered a peculiar race of men whom we have 
been taught to call Indians, or red men. 

In the language of another, " They were of tall stature, 
comely proportion, strong, active, and, as it would seem, very 
healthful; in color swart, and of long hair." 

The poet well describes them, as he sings: 

" And thus o'er land and stream for ages long 
A race of red men, vagrant, plod along. 
With language taught from rustic nature's throne, 
And habits each peculiarly their own." 

The life they led was rude and uncivilized. To hunt and 
fight, to kill and eat, to lie down and sleep, and in that sleep 
to dream of the happy hunting grounds which should be 
theirs in the by and by, — these things seemed to them the 
extent of their labor and care. Long since they passed, 
and the places which once knew them now know them no 
more, and yet we are often reminded of their presence by 
memorials preserved, and we are greatly indebted to one of 
our citizens for a fine collection of Indian relics, which now 
and in the years to come shall, better than the written word, 
instruct us concerning this strange people. 

Coming of the White Men. 

In England in the first quarter of the seventeenth century 
a desire is prevalent for the colonization of America, as shown 
by the following facts. The Council of New England, which 
had previously received from King James I a large tract of 



Historical Address. Ill 

land upon this continent, on the 19th of March, 1627-8, 
conveyed to Sir Henry Rosewell, Sir John Younge, Thomas 
Southcott, John Humphrey, John Endecott (this a famihar 
name), and Symon Whetcombe, their heirs and associates 
forever, the land lying between three miles north of the 
Merrimack, and three miles south of the Charles, and from the 
Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea, Under direction of these 
men John Endecott, with others, June 20, 1628, set sail for 
Naumkeag, which was reached September 6, 1628. On 
arrival they met Roger Conant and others, the old planters, 
so-called, who for a while had tarried at Gloucester, a fishing 
station, but two years previous had taken up their abode 
at Naumkeag, afterwards called Salem. March 4, 1629, 
Sir Henry Rosewell and others, feeling somewhat troubled 
concerning the many grants of the same territory to different 
parties made by the Council of New England, sought from 
King Charles I a confirmation of the grant previously made 
to them. He confirms the same to them and their associates, 
and makes them a body corporate and politic, to be called 
the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in 
New England, their legislature to consist of a governor, 
deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants. In 1629 the 
Company in England elect John Endecott to be Governor 
of the Massachusetts plantation in New England, and later 
in the same year a large number emigrate to America, among 
them Rev. Samuel Skelton, Rev. Francis Higginson, Samuel 
Sharpe, and others. 

October, 1629, John Winthrop is chosen Governor by the 
Company in England for one year. August 29, 1629, it is 
voted that the government and patent be settled in New 
England. June, 1630, Winthrop and followers arrive in 
Salem, and the government there was immediately surren- 
dered to him by Endecott. Shortly after his arrival Win- 
throp, thinking Salem was not the place for the capital of 
the Colony, journeyed to Charlestown, later crossed the river 



112 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Charles, and called the land occupied Boston, and thus 
permanently established the seat of government. 

The Court of Assistants made grants of land, also the 
General Court, and later (in 1636), power to grant lands was 
given to towns. The meetings of the Assistants were ordered 
to be held at the house of the Governor. Towns were early 
established. Salem, the earliest town in the Massachusetts 
Bay Colony, included what is to-day Salem, Wenham, Man- 
chester, Marblehead, Beverly, Peabody, and Danvers, and a 
part of Middleton. Two of the early grants made by the 
Court of Assistants were in our present town limits: July, 
1632, to John Endecott and to Rev. Samuel Skelton; the 
former, bounded by our present Waters, Crane, and Porter's 
rivers, and the main land, containing about three hundred 
acres; and the other bounded by Crane and Porter's rivers 
and the main land, containing about two hundred acres. 
The bounds of these grants are distinctly visible to-day. 

Salem Village. 

December 31, 1638, at a general town meeting in Salem, 
it was 

"Agreed and voted that there should be a village granted to Mr. 
Phillips and his company upon such conditions as the seven men 
appointed for the town's affairs should agree on." 

This village was in the vicinity of the Ipswich River, that 
river which then and now, 

" To the restless sea goes winding down, 
In whose channel the current is deep and strong, 
But on flats and marshes it loiters along." 

To this region emigration then began. The land granted 
seems to have been between the river and towards the road, 
that first grand trunk road of early days connecting Medford 
with Ipswich. To this village came Bishop, Sharpe, Ha- 



Historical Address. 113 

thorne, Davenport, Hugh Peter, Rea, Weston, Freeman, and 
Waterman; the Putnams, Porters, Kenneys, Hutchinsons, 
Buxtons, and Ingersolls; the Prestons, Goodells, Nourses, 
Swinnertons, and Popes; the Wolcotts, Andrews, Haines, 
and many more. These names are called to our minds in 
their descendants, now citizens of our town. 

Just before the arrival of tlie English there had been a 
serious epidemic raging among the Indians, and their number 
had been greatly reduced. Of the survivors many had moved 
along towards the westward, and while to the newcomers 
it may have seemed that the race were 

" In the glory of the sunset, 
In the purple mists of evening," 



movmg 



To the regions of the home-wind, 
To the islands of the blessed," 



it proved untrue, and so the white people stood constantly 
in fear of being surprised and attacked, and each family 
provided themselves with weapons and kept them within 
easy reach for defence. In this region our ancestors lived, 
busy daily in the felling of the forests, in the making of ways 
or roads, in opening the land for cultivation, careful ever to 
avail themselves of those open spaces made so by nature, 
and also those which the Indians had cleared. They were 
busy as farmers, tillers of the soil, living as others had lived 
before them, having in many ways hard experiences; yet 
there occurred many things of a pleasant nature, and, best of 
all, they were freer to do than in the home they had left 
across the ocean. These our forefathers and foremothers 
were of the best people of England; they were hardy and 
industrious, and, in the main, happy in this their new home. 
They had obstacles to contend with, particularly in their 
remoteness from the meetinghouse, schools, and last, but 
not least, the town meeting. 



114 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

An Additional Grant. 

In 1672 an additional grant was made to the Village by 
the town of Salem of the land on the northerly side of the 
Ipswich road running from the horse bridge on what is now 
Conant Street near the North Beverly meetinghouse to the 
hither end of Governor Endecott's farm, at the head of Waters 
River, near the corner of the present Endicott and Sylvan 
streets, and then in a western line. This it will be seen did 
not include the Endecott and Skelton grants, they still being 
a part of the Salem proper of those days. 

First Meetinghouse. 

In October, 1672, the village people were allowed to build 
a meetinghouse and to have a minister. The building was 
placed upon land near the corner of what is now Hobart and 
Forest streets. About this time a new meetinghouse was 
built for the town of Salem, and they presented to the 
" Farmers " the pulpit and deacons' seats which had served 
in the old meetinghouse. The people of the town were, of 
course, dissatisfied at this attempt to build a new meeting- 
house and form a new parish, and, strange as it may seem, 
some of the farmers wished to remain with the old church 
in the town. The majority of the farmers, however, were 
overjoyed at their success. 

Uprising of the Indians. 

In 1675 the people of the Village, in common with those 
about them, became alarmed at the uprising of the Indians. 
At this time the Indians, finding that the land over which 
in times past they had been monarchs was fast slipping away 
into the hands of the English, obeyed the call of King Philip, 
whose father, Massasoit, had been so kind to the white 
men, and who, on their arrival, literally acted the words 
of the poet. 



Historical Address. 115 

" Let us welcome, then, the strangers, 
Hail them as our friends and brothers, 
And the heart's right hand of friendship 
Give them when they come to see us," 

this man was now represented by his son, King Philip, who 
was angry with the newcomers, those who had taken his 
lands, and he, unlike his father, beheld 

" A darker, drearier vision pass before him, 
Vague and cloud-like " ; in which he 
" Saw the remnants of his people 
Sweeping westward, wild and woful. 
Like the cloud-rack of a tempest, 
Like the withered leaves of autumn! " 



Seeing this, Philip arose in his might, determined to make 
one desperate effort to drive the English away, and thus 
began that most disastrous strife known as " King Philip's 
War." During its progress great fear and consternation 
came upon the English. The people of Salem Village, brave 
and loyal, were willing to do their part towards conquering 
these warriors. And so a Davenport, a Hutchinson, a Put- 
nam, a Flint, a Howard, a Hathorne, a Houlton, and others 
departed for the scene of carnage and war. Who has not 
heard of the brave Capt. Thomas Lothrop, — he who took 
his bride from Salem Village (the Putnamville of to-day), 
Bethiah Ray, — and of his company, " the Flower of Essex," 
which included men from this vicinity, and of their sad fate 
near that stream in Deerfield, which has since been called 
"Bloody Brook"! 

In 1676 this particular war was over, ending with the death 
of King Philip. From this time there was a long series of 
engagements with the Indians and their allies, the French, 
which continued until after the middle of the eighteenth 
century. 



116 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Reign of Andros. 

The charter of the colony having been taken away, in 1686 
James II appointed a council, with Joseph Dudley as presi- 
dent, over all New England; shortly after Sir Edmund Andros 
succeeded him, having been appointed governor by the king. 
Andros ruled for a little more than two years. His reign 
was very distasteful to the people of the colony. In 1689 
the people arose in their might and brought about his return 
to England. Among the arbitrary rulings of this period 
was one requiring all deeds of property to be recorded in 
Boston and all wills to be proved there. This will explam 
why the will of Lieut. Thomas Putnam, the father of Joseph, 
and the grandfather of Gen. Israel Putnam, was proved in 
Boston rather than in Salem. It was proved while Dudley 
was president of the council. 

Indian Deed. 

As has been stated. Sir Henry Rosewell and others, who 
first received their grant from the Council for New England, 
as a precaution to avoid trouble, had a new grant from King 
Charles I. In 1685 claims were laid to the lands belonging 
to the settlers. Upon the arrival of the English an agreement 
was concluded with the Indians whereby payments were 
made for the land taken. Claims now being made for the 
land, they deemed it wise to obtain a conveyance from the 
descendants of those Indians whom they had found on their 
arrival, and a deed was then given to the selectmen of Salem, 
one of whom was Israel Porter, who was a resident of Salem 
Village. This deed is now preserved in the City Hall, Salem. 

A Time of Great Sorrow. 

In 1692 there was seen slowly rising above the horizon of 
the lives of the people of Salem Village a dark cloud, small at 
first, but as it rose higher and still higher in the heaven of their 



Historical Address. 117 

lives it grew larger and larger, and finally reaching the zenith, 
the cloud burst and enveloped the people in great darkness and 
sorrow; later the storm spent its fury and there was seen, as 
the cloud separated and faded away, the bright sunlight 
again. It would be unwise to dwell upon the sorrows, trials, 
and afflictions of those days, which have been told and retold, 
but rather, in passing, attention should be called to this fact : 
As in the lives of individuals there come dark days, followed 
by the sunlight, so in the experience above referred to, dark- 
ness at last disappeared and the light streamed in; and as 
an outcome of these serious troubles there remains a bright 
and pleasing picture, which it will be well to dwell upon and 
remember. What happened, developed — no, not developed, 
it was already there — but brought forth into the glowing 
sunlight of midday that which was a great comfort and 
delight to find in those days, which had brought joy in former 
times, and the possession of which will now, and ever, cause 
admiration and praise, — character. In those dark days it 
shone forth resplendent. It is well that the relatives and 
friends of one whose life was sacrificed have erected a monu- 
ment to her memory in yonder resting place of the dead, and 
have placed beside it another monument upon which they 
have caused to be inscribed the names of her friends and 
neighbors who stood by her in that hour when true friendship 
cost something and was of untold worth to her. How fitting 
to have done this deed! And when these monuments shall 
have crumbled to dust, character, for which they stand, will 
be remembered in the hearts and minds of generation after 
generation, " to the last syllable of recorded time." 

From Colony to Province. 

About this time these ancestors of ours were passing from 
a miniature republic to a province of England. The change 
was unpleasant. Instead of electing their governor, now, the 
King of England appointed him, and all laws enacted were 



118 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

to be sent to England for approval or rejection. A great 
change indeed! During the days of the colony Governor 
Endecott spent much time upon his Orchard Farm, which 
farm is in this town and, at the suggestion of his neighbors, he 
took several of their boys to rear them in the ways of farmers; 
among others, John Putnam, Jr., and Nathaniel Ingersoll; 
the former has left on record a deposition in which he testifies 
that he was a retainer to Governor Endecott on his Orchard 
Farm in 1655, and thus became intimately acquainted with 
the Governor and his son Zerubbabel. 

The Middle Precinct of Salem. 

In 1710 occurred an interesting event. Several of the 
people dwelling " to ye westward and northward of ye town 
bridge, yet without ye Village line," petitioned Salem to be 
set off as a parish. A town meeting was called, and it being 
shown that all of those desiring separation had not signed 
the petition, the meeting was dissolved. Later the town 
granted their request for one fourth of an acre of land for 
the site of their meeting-house. Still desirous to become a 
parish, they sought aid from the General Court. A day was 
set for a hearing and before that body they presented their 
case, June 16, 1710 (just forty-seven years before the act 
was passed making Danvers a town). Salem appeared in 
opposition by its committee, who contended that the petition- 
ers were over-hasty, that " their method is without example 
among us. When those of our vOlage came to crave their 
dismission, they being more moderate and regular, they first 
addressed the church for leave, and then the town for dis- 
mission, which these have neglected wholly to do, which is 
grievous to us, and we trust will not be contravened by your 
Excellency and the great and general court." 

Some of the reasons given by the petitioners were, their 
long distance from meeting, and in certain seasons the difii- 
culty of attendance, while they are ever anxious to attend 



Historical Address. 119 

(a reason which sounds a Httle strange in these days). They 
declare that if they are permitted to come off, they will 
" invite some virtuous young man of good report suitably 
qualified to be our minister." The General Court appointed 
a committee to go to Salem, view the premises, and report. 
The committee report favoring separation, and the General 
Court approved, and so was established a new parish to be 
called the Middle Precinct, with bounds as follows : " Beginning 
at the Great Cove in the North Field and running directly 
to Trask's grist mills, taking in the mill to the new precinct; 
from thence on a straight line to the mile stone in the road 
from Salem Meeting House, and so along the road to Lyndseys 
and thence along the line between Salem and Lynn, north- 
ward, till it conies to Salem Milage line, and along by that 
line to Frost-Fish River, and then by salt water to the Great 
Cove first mentioned." 

In the establishing of this Middle Precinct the Endecott 
and Skelton grants previously referred to became a part of 
the same. All the people living on the south side of what is 
now Conant, Elm, Ash, and Sylvan streets (from Ash on) 
were included in the new precinct. This seems strange to 
the people of to-day. Then the Porters, who kept the ordi- 
nary where now stands the Old Berry Tavern, had to attend 
meeting in what is now Peabody, and their children were 
baptized there. Some of these inhabitants were desirous 
of connecting themselves with the Village parish, having 
apparently more in common with them than with the Middle 
Precinct. In 1743 Capt. Samuel Endicott, John Porter, 
Benjamin Porter, John Endicott, and James Prince endeav- 
ored to encroach upon the rights of the Middle Precinct, by 
including within the Village bounds some of those who 
belonged in said precinct. They were not successful; there 
was a good deal of opposition, and the project failed. Later 
the Middle Precinct was desirous of joining with the Village 
in securing a township. Nothing came of it at this time. 



120 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Separate Town. 

In 1732 there was a strong desire among the inhabitants of 
the Village to become a separate town. In their petition to 
the town of Salem they asked that they might be set off as a 
new town and have included in their territory a part of the 
Middle Precinct (now Peabody) and also the Endecott and 
Skelton grants, the latter being now called Porter's Neck. 
Salem refused to grant the petition, and the Villagers agreed 
to drop the matter on condition that Salem would allow them 
and their neighbors " without ye bounds " "to draw equal 
proportion of money with the rest of the town for the use of 
a school amongst us of all the annual income of the town's 
rents." To this the town of Salem agreed. 

School in Salem Village, 

It is proper now to remark concerning Rev. Joseph Green's 
interest in starting a school in the Village. He says under 
date of March 11, 1708, just after he had attended the install- 
ment, as he calls it, of John Leverett as president of Harvard 
College (perhaps the event may have hastened his action) : 

" At lecture I spake to several about building a school-house, and 
determined to do it. I rode to ye neighbors about a school-house and 
find them generally willing to help. I went into ye town meeting 
and said to this effect : ' Neighbors, I am about building a school- 
house for the good education of our children, and have spoken to 
several of the neighbors, who are willing to help it forward, so that 
I hope we shall quickly finish it, and I speak of it here that so every 
one that can have any benefit may have opportunity for so good a 
service.' Some replied that it was a new thing to them, and they 
desired to know where it should stand, and what the design of it was. 
To them I answered that Deacon IngersoU would give the land for 
it to stand on, at the upper end of the training field, and that I de- 
signed to have a good school-master to teach their children to read 
and write and cipher and everything that is good. Many commended 
the design and none objected against it." 

Rev. Mr. Green desired good schools. Ever since the people 




Q 



Historical Address. 121 

of this locality have always been interested in good schools. 
We can attest that in the last fifty years the people have 
always been " generally willing to help." 

A District to be Called Danvers. 

In 1751 a new effort to become a town was made, which 
was partly successful. January 28, 1752, an act was passed 
uniting the Village and Middle Precinct into a District, which 
made us a town except in one particular, we could not send 
a representative to the General Court. We then commenced 
an independent existence. Henceforth there was to be no 
Village or Middle Precinct, but a new town to be called Dan- 
vers, North and South parishes. 

First Town Meeting. 

February 18, 1752, a request was made to Daniel Epes, a 
justice of the peace, by Jonathan Kettle and others, that he 
would call, in his Majesty's name, a town meeting (notice the 
words " town meeting " ), to be held March 4, 1752, in the 
North Meetinghouse, at ten o'clock. This was our first town 
meeting. We have had several since. 

An account of this meeting will be interesting. First, as 
to the building in which it was held. It was the second 
meetinghouse built by the farmers, and stood upon Watch 
House Hill. The house was set'so as to face the Meetinghouse 
Road (now Hobart Street). It had then been standing about 
fifty-one years; the pastor of the church was Rev. Peter 
Clark. 

After the call was read, Daniel Epes was chosen moderator, 
and Daniel Epes, Jr., clerk (sort of a family affair) ; James 
Prince, treasurer. Archelaus Dale, John Andrew, and Henry 
Putnam were appointed to " tell ye votes." 

Seven selectmen were elected (we find it hard to elect five) ; 
four from the first, and three from the second, parish. They 
were also to act as assessors and overseers of the poor. Four 



122 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

constables (or policemen), two in the first, two in the second, 
parish (we haven't improved much on that) ; five tithingmen. 
There were chosen two clerks of the market, so they must 
have had a market in those days. Mr. Daniel Rea was to 
" take care that ye laws relating to ye preservation of deer 
be observed." Thus was the machinery of the town govern- 
ment set in motion. It has been running ever since. 

New Mills. 

Previous to 1754 the parts of our town which to-day are 
called Danvers Centre, Tapleyville, Hathorne, Putnamville 
(in early days. Blind Hole) were known. I desire now to 
speak concerning that part called in early days Skelton's 
Neck, afterwards Porter's Neck, later New Mills, and now 
Danversport. This neck of land was not much settled before 
1754, although the land had owners from the earliest settle- 
ment. In this year, Archelaus Putnam establishes mills on 
Crane River, near what is now the Lummus Mill. He was 
among the first to build here a home, and in company with 
others he built two gristmills; afterwards, a wheat mill and 
sawmill were built. 

It proved to be a good mill privilege, and the name of New 
Mills was given to the place, I have no doubt, to distinguish 
them from the mills then in existence situated near where 
Mr. Otis F. Putnam's mills now stand, on Sylvan Street, which 
mills had then been erected fifty years. Soon after the 
coming of said Archelaus, the owners of the Neck land desire 
a way from what is now Danvers Square through the Neck to 
the New Mills, over what is now our High and Water streets, 
and a private way is laid out, the owners to have leave to set 
up gates across the same. There had been a proprietors' 
way since 1732, or earlier, and this new road was undoubtedly 
a broadening out of the old way of the early owners. Soon 
this village begins to grow by the accession of new settlers 
and the building of new homes. 



Historical Address. 123 

Town of Dan vers. 

For five years the people had Hvecl in a District, when in 
1757 they became anxious to become a town, and thus secure 
representation in the General Court. June 9, 1757, the 
House of Representatives passed the bill making Danvers 
a town. The bill coming before the Council, Thomas Hutchin- 
son, a member, asks permission to enter his objections, pre- 
sumably in behalf of the king, knowing that it was his wish 
that no more towns should be created, for that would insure 
more representatives. Hutchinson offered his objections, 
but in spite of the same, a week later, June 16, 1757, these 
words were placed upon the bill: " By his Majesty's Council 
we consent to the enacting of this bill." Then followed the 
signatures of fifteen members of the Council. Thus were 
we made a town. At that time there was no governor or 
lieutenant-governor. According to the law this bill was 
later taken to England for rejection or approval, and in 
August, 1759, in Kensington Palace, it was disallowed, owing 
to the fact that the Board of Trade reported to the Lords 
of the Privy Council that this Act should receive his Majesty's 
disapproval, and so the King, George II, accepted the report 
and decided that he was unwilling Danvers should become 
a town and thus decreed. Hence the significance of the 
motto on our town seal, " The King Unwilling." As to the 
name Danvers, various suggestions have been made, but as 
Danvers is a name of an old English family, in all probability 
the name came from that source. Several Massachusetts 
towns have family names. 

Highway from Ipswich Road to North Bridge, Salem. 
In 1760 Jeremiah Page, David Putnam, and others pre- 
sent a petition to the honorable justices of the Court of 
General Sessions of the Peace, held at Newbury, and they 
humbly shew that " a new highway leading from the highway 
in Danvers, the Old Ipswich Road " by ye widow Porter's 



124 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

across Waters river, so called, to ye North Bridge in Salem 
will very much accommodate ye publick and is necessary to 
ye publick good," and prayed that the same might be laid 
out. On the petition the court ordered that Col. John Choate, 
of Ipswich, Col. Robert Hale, of Beverly, and Col. Joseph 
Blaney, of Marblehead, be a committee to inquire into the 
necessity and convenience of said way. They made report 
that such a road was needed, and the court approved and 
adopted the same. Between the time of the filing of said 
petition and before the committee had reported, the oppo- 
nents of the way were not idle, and the town by vote appointed 
Samuel Flint, Cornelius Tarbell, and Samuel Holten a com- 
mittee to present objections to the same to the Court of 
General Sessions, In their remonstrance they recite among 
other reasons " the expense of the way recently laid out to 
New Mills, which cost the town not much less than one thou- 
sand old tenor, which way is greatly detrimental to the town." 
" The petition, signed by thirteen persons, two of Danvers and 
eleven of other towns," " that the highway from said widow 
Porter's, leading by the country seat of ye Hon. Robert 
Hooper to the South Meeting House, and so to Salem, is very 
commodious for the public." " The great expense to the 
town of keeping the bridge over Waters River, and the mill 
dam at Crane River in repair"; also, " the building of the 
bridge prevents vessels going further up the river and renders 
two wharfs useless, one near the brick kilns." However, 
later the road was laid out and has continued as a main 
thoroughfare from that day to this. 

Brick Making. 

The business of making bricks was begun very early. In 
1732 there were brick kilns on the Endecott grant. It is not 
known how much earlier bricks were made. Near the close 
of the first half of the eighteenth century Daniel Andrews, 
living in that part of the town now called Putnamville, was 



Historical Address. 125 

making bricks. One day he visited Medford and met a man 
there by the name of Page who was also engaged in the same 
business. Andrews told him he wished to hire a man to 
assist him in his yard. Mr. Page answered: " My son is just 
of age, perhaps you might hire him." Mr. Andrews intei- 
viewed the young man, who agreed to go with him to Danvers. 
He boarded with Mr. Andrews and in due course of time 
married his daughter Sarah. He bought land and built him 
a home. The man was Jeremiah Page; the home, the delightful 
old house on Danvers Square. Jeremiah Page also bought a 
tract of land opposite the car houses on High Street and went 
into business on his own account. Here he produced many 
bricks; John Page, his son, afterwards made bricks in this 
yard. The clay here was considered very fine, and the United 
States forts all the way from Maine to Florida were made of 
bricks from this yard. From that day to this there have been 
brick yards, and the bricks made therein have been used in 
the erection of buildings far and near. Our manufacturers 
have been the Pages, Grays, Days, Tapleys, Carr, Sullivans, 
Evans, and others. 

Business of Tanning. 

The tanning of hides began with the settlement of the 
Village. John Porter, in the seventeenth century, was our 
first tanner, and his sons continued the business. The inven- 
tory of the estate of Joseph Porter shows " new hides un- 
tanned," and in his will he gives to his children, " what 
leather I have," " all paying an equal part for ye dressing of 
what hides there be in the tan fatts to make up leather." 
This business continued until the last quarter of the nineteenth 
century. 

Tax on Tea. 

In 1767 duties were placed upon tea and other imports 
from England. The people were much displeased. In 1773 
all duties were repealed except those on tea. All know what 



126 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

happened, — the throwing overboard of the tea stored in the 
British ships anchored in Boston Harbor, called the Boston 
Tea Party. Danvers men were loyal and declared they 
would dispense with the use of tea, and Colonel Page, before 
referred to, was very particular that it should not be used 
in his house; and the colonel, his wife, and the old house, 
Miss Larcom, the poet, has well described in her poem, " The 
Gambrel Roof." 

Highway District. 

The people of the villages of Danvers other than the New 
Mills, since the building of the road from the Ipswich road 
to Salem, and of the bridges over Crane and Waters rivers, 
had continually harassed and annoyed the people of New 
Mills, so that in 1772, in sheer defence, after forbearance had 
ceased to be a virtue, they, the New Mills inhabitants, ap- 
pealed to the General Court, asking that they might be in- 
corporated into a District and thus pay for the expense of 
their roads and bridges without any help from the town. A 
most unique proceeding, surely of rare occurrence in the 
province or state. The General Court granted their request. 
It was called a " Highway District," and the tract included 
therein was that portion of land lying between the two rivers, 
Crane and Porter's, the northern end being the Ipswich road 
from Crane River bridge on Ash Street to the bridge over 
Frost Fish, or Porter's River, and a part of the Endecott 
grant was also included in said District. This District 
continued its existence for about seventy years, and when 
the act was repealed the proprietors voted that the money 
on hand be used for repairing the roads and sidewalks in the 
District. The people in this District were true to their word, 
and all those years took the whole charge of their roads and 
bridges without any help from the town. Such responsibility 
would not be assumed to-day by any of our villages. They 
were a brave, strong set of men, these pioneers of New Mills, 
and included in their number the Porters, Berrys, Doles, 



Historical Address. 127 

Endicotts, Putnams, Reeds, Hutchinsons, Fowlers, Kents, 
Pages, Clarks, Browns, Feltons, and others. The act was 
repealed in 1840. 

Seat of Government of Province Transferred from 
Boston to Salem. — General Gage in Danvers. 

In 1765, when the English Parliament passed the Stamp 
Act, and for several years following, there was not the best 
of feeling existing between the colonies and England. Troops 
were sent here to watch the movements of the king's sub- 
jects. Indignities were heaped upon the people. Finally, 
in 1774, came the Boston Port Bill, by which the town of 
Boston was closed and the seat of government removed to 
Salem. Then it was that Danvers became a center of interest, 
for Gov. Thomas Gage came to live within its borders, in a 
house still standing, and known as " The Lindens," occupied 
now and for many years past by our townsman, Mr. Francis 
Peabody, which house was built in 1754 by Hon. Robert 
Hooper, the rich merchant of Marblehead ; and he it was who 
offered the same to Governor Gage for his residence. Gover- 
nor Gage remained here from June to September, 1774. 
He also had an office in the Colonel Page house. Danvers, 
in common with other towns in the province, became aroused. 
Dr. Samuel Holten was present at the session of the General 
Court in Salem in June, 1774, when brave Samuel Adams, 
with closed doors, caused the election of delegates to the first 
Continental Congress, while Thomas Flucker, the provincial 
secretary, having come down from Danvers to adjourn the 
court, not being able to get inside, gave his orders for adjourn- 
ment standing upon the stairs. 

Preparations for Resistance. 

These chosen representatives, with others, later resolved 
themselves into a Provincial Congress, which Congress adopted 
plans for organization of the militia, maintaining it, and 



128 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

calling it out as occasion might require. Companies of minute 
men were organized who should be ready at a moment's 
notice, as the name suggests; also alarm companies, these 
in addition to the regular militia companies. Collection of 
military stores was ordered. A storm was brewing, a conflict 
seemed inevitable, and the people were preparing for it. At 
length in February, 1775, occurred the first armed resistance 
at North Bridge, Salem, fortunately without bloodshed; and 
later, on the 19th of April, 1775, the first battle of the Revo- 
lution was fought, called the Battle of Lexington, which was 
a continuous fight from early morn till evening. Eight 
companies departed from Danvers on that day, and ere 
nightfall seven of the Danvers men had fallen martyrs in 
defence of their homes and liberty. The following shows 
the spirit of the men of Danvers of that day. Jotham Webb, 
from New Mills, in Capt. Israel Hutchinson's company, had 
been married but a short time. On that eventful morning 
he went to his work as usual in the brick yard, and when the 
alarm came, left for his home, where he put on his wedding 
suit, remarking to his wife, who expostulated with him: " If 
I die, I will die in my best clothes." At Menotomy (now 
Arlington) , on the retreat of the British, he received a fatal 
shot at the first fire of the enemy. 

War had now commenced in earnest and for the next seven 
years it was to continue. All through that long and anxious 
time the men and women of Danvers were loyal and true. 
All through these years her sons went forth to do battle, and 
many, officers and men, distinguished themselves, notably, 
Samuel Holten, Israel Hutchinson, Jeremiah Page, Samuel 
Page, Moses Porter, Caleb Rea, Rev. Benjamin Balch, Gideon 
Foster, Asa Prince, Deacon Edmund Putnam, Captains Flint, 
Epes, and Low, and many others, and last but not least. Gen. 
Israel Putnam, of whom Danvers is ever proud, and concern- 
ing whom General Sherman once said: " He was a glorious 
old soldier, and his services and example are worth a dozen 



Historical Address. 129 

monuments like that on Bunker Hill, even if made of pure 
gold." In 1783 peace was declared, and at that time the 
soldiers returned to their homes and settled down to their 
old life. A new nation had come into existence, had taken 
its place among the nations of the earth. Independence had 
been declared, but it had been gained at a most fearful cost. 
With brave hearts the people took up the future struggle, 
feeling that the victory gained was well worth the cost. 

Building of Liberty Bridge. 

In 1787 came another struggle, this time a local one, and 
also in relation to the old subject of bridges. Now not a 
district alone, but the whole town were interested. Previous 
to this uprising nearly all of the travel to Boston from the 
eastward, especially with teams, was by the grand trunk 
road of which I have previously spoken, and by the New Mills 
road. The only other way was by the ferry between Beverly 
and Salem. The General Court were at this time petitioned 
for authority to erect a bridge which should supersede the 
ferry, and the proposition met with favor except from the 
town of Danvers and a portion of the inhabitants of Salem. 
Danvers was bitterly opposed, as it would take away much 
of the travel through the town and also lessen the trade of 
Danvers. The following was written concerning Danvers 
in connection with this affair: 

" Against the overwhelming current gathering head as it moved 
along, stood, like a rock, the ancient historic town of Danvers. It 
was a unit against the bridge. Single-handed, or with whatever help 
might offer, it was resolved to fight to the last ; and the massed array 
of Essex County was confronted in that antique spirit in which the 
town had sent its sons but a dozen years before, the spirit which an 
earlier struggle over a bridge had been fought out by the Roman 
champions when they stayed the Volscian cohorts thundering at the 
gates 

" For if they once may win the bridge, 
What hope to save the town? " 



130 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

The bridge between Salem and Beverly was built in 1788, 
and Danvers the same year built a bridge over Porter's River 
and named it Liberty Bridge. Salem people and others 
called it Spite Bridge, claiming it was built out of spite. 

Manufacture of Shoes. 

Previous to the nineteenth century shoes were made in 
our town by journeymen, who traveled from house to house, 
carrying their leather and their tools with them, and tarrying 
in each family until all were supplied with shoes. In the 
early part of the last century shoe factories were established 
and the leather prepared and sent to the outlying districts 
to be made into shoes. Then came into existence those little 
shops which were built and placed near the homes of the people 
in this and adjoining towns. Here in these shops several 
men worked making the shoes, and as they labored, discussed 
affairs pertaining to the nation, state, and town, and these 
affairs were settled to their satisfaction regardless of what 
those in authority might decide. The neighborhood affairs 
were also gone over, and the opinions of all asked and freely 
given; and ofttimes in the evening, as work was resumed, 
many strolled in to loaf away the evening hour, and when the 
lights were put out, and the door locked for the night, the 
participants departed to their homes, carrying with them 
delicious morsels to be rehearsed for the edification of the wife 
and friends at home. Shoe manufactories increased and spread 
fast over the town. This business was very much affected by 
the panics of 1837 and 1857, but the great crash came in 1861, 
when the Civil War broke out. Much of the business had been 
carried on with the Southern people, and, they now repudiating 
their debts, many of the manufacturers had but one course left 
— to fail. Since the war a large amount of business has been 
transacted here, but latterly it has declined until few factories 
are left. The little shoe shops are dismantled, and those now 
standing are reminders of the scenes of former days. 



Historical Address. 131 

Carpet Making. 
At one time there was an extensive carpet business in 
Tapleyville, but it has not existed for several years. 

Iron Works. 
Two iron factories, one called the Salem Iron Factory Com- 
pany on Waters River, and the other, the Dan vers and Beverly 
Iron Works Company on Porter's River, were established in 
1800 and 1803, respectively. There have been nail factories, 
fulling mills, wheat mills, and shops for casting. To-day 
there is a grist mill at Danversport, and where once stood the 
Salem Iron Factory Company's works, only one building 
remains, the rolling mill, and where were the works of the 
Danvers and Beverly Iron Works Company there is now a 
rubber factory. 

Ship Building. 
Ship building was extensively carried on at New Mills both 
before and after the Revolution, even down to recent times. 
We have also had, and have to-day, the wood and coal business 
and box factories. 

Potteries. 
Pottery has been extensively carried on from early days, 
and especially in what was formerly the south part of the 
town; and recently in our own town a very fine clay has been 
found for potters' use. 

Inns or Taverns on the Old Ipswich Road. 
From the fact that a portion of the " Old Ipswich Road," 
that early way from Medford to Ipswich, lay over the terri- 
tory which is now our town, is the reason that inns were here 
in early times, one of the earliest being situated on the farm 
of Emanuel Downing, which farm was then in Salem, after- 
wards Danvers, and now in that part of Peabody called 



132 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Proctor's Crossing. On this farm lived and roamed George 
Downing, who was the son of said Emanuel, and who was in 
the first class that graduated from Harvard; later, returning 
to England, he became distinguished, and Downing Street, 
in London, the most noted street of the world, was named for 
him. 

Not far from this inn, and also near the old Ipswich Road, 
close by the King Hooper place, was a house of entertainment 
kept by Samuel Endicott, a descendant of the governor, and 
afterwards by Timothy Leach, and known at different times 
by the name of Endicott and Leach Inn. It was in existence 
in Revolutionary days and later, and also, without doubt, 
previous to the Revolution. 

Still further along upon this old road stood another inn on 
what is now the corner of our present Elm and High streets. 
The land was owned by John Porter, the early settler, and 
then by his descendants. From the Porters it passed to 
Colonel Jeremiah Page, who conveyed the same to his son-in- 
law. Dr. Andrew Putnam, and he erected buildings thereon, 
but whether Putnam kept an inn is not known; but while 
he owned it one John Piemont, who came from Boston, kept 
a public house. At this inn or tavern many distinguished 
people tarried, especially lawyers and others on their journeys 
to and from Ipswich to attend court, John Adams, who 
afterwards became the second president of the United States, 
remained here over night, Monday, June 20, 1774, and ere 
he retired wrote in his diary words expressive of his feelings 
concerning his election at a session of the General Court, held 
in Salem on the Friday previous, as a delegate to a convention 
of delegates from the colonies to be held in Philadelphia in 
September, 1774. Josiah Quincy, Jr., also tarried here later, 
in company with Adams. 

In 1775, at the commencement of hostilities, many were 
suspected of sympathy with England, and among others 
Mr. Piemont, the innkeeper, but he was exonerated by the 



Historical Address. 133 

committee of inspection of the town. This is the statement 
they made public concerning him, pubhshing the same in 
the Salem Gazette: 

" This may certify that about two years ago Mr. John Piemont 
came to dwell in the town of Danvers, and was well recommended by 
the selectment of the town of Boston ; and though some persons have 
called him a Tory to his great damage, yet we, as a committee of in- 
spection for the town of Danvers, have carefully examined into Mr. 
Piemont 's character, and are fully satisfied that he is a friend to us 
in the common cause of our country, and we hope all our friends will 
treat him as such and call upon him for entertainment, as he keeps 
a large public house in said Danvers. 

S. HOLTEN, 

Israel Hutchinson, 
Amos Putnam, 
Wm. Shillaber, 
Benjamin Procter, 
Jona. Procter, 
Wm. Putnam, 
Committee of Inspection for said Danvers." 

This report is interesting as showing the vigilance used to 
discover the position taken by the men of that day, thus 
proving them to be either a patriot or a Tory, 

Dr. Putnam conveyed the premises to Gideon Putnam, who 
also kept a house of entertainment here. Samuel Putnam, 
who was the son of Gideon Putnam and who became a lawyer 
and later an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Massa- 
chusetts, spent his vacations here while a student at Harvard 
College. 

Across the way, on the corner of our present High and Co- 
nant streets, was another inn, believed to have been here 
since 1741, and undoubtedly earlier. 

In 1727 Benjamin Porter, grandson of the first John, 
deceased, leaving large tracts of real estate, and in his will 
devised two hundred acres to his two sons, John and Benja- 
min, the said acres being part of the tract having for its 



134 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

bounds the Old Ipswich Road from the present Conant Street 
bridge to a point in said road on the present Ash Street not 
far from the Crane River bridge, then across to the brook by 
the car barns following the brook to Porter's River, and 
bounding on said river to the Conant Street bridge. This 
tract of two hundred acres was given to John and Benjamin 
to be held by them as tenants-in-common, but with this proviso 
that when divided the division of the land should be so made 
as to leave the buildings on Benjamin's part, the same being 
the home place of the first John, and which were destroyed 
by fire about the middle of the last century. The division 
was made in 1741, John's part being the northerly half, 
bounding on the Ipswich Road, a portion situate on what is 
now Danvers Square. At this time there were buildings on 
this part which had been erected between the years 1727 
and 1741. 

Whether there was an inn here or not previous to 1741 is 
not known. Presumably there was, but John Porter was an 
innkeeper and we assume may have kept an inn from 1741 
to his death in 1759. The building which John died seized 
of in 1759 stood on or near the site of the present " Old Berry 
Tavern." After the death of John it passed into the hands 
of John, his son, and widow Apphia, then through the Porters 
and others, until Jethro and Timothy Putnam became the 
owners, and in 1804 they sold the premises to Ebenezer Berry, 
of Andover. He kept an inn or tavern here until his death 
in 1843, and then the same came into possession of his son, 
Eben G. Berry, and from him it passed to his descendants, 
who now own the same. There was probably a tavern or 
house of entertainment here from the death of John in 1759 
to the time when Ebenezer Berry became owner. The 
old tavern was removed in parts when the present house was 
erected, and the hall part, that portion of the same which 
had been a part of the beautiful mansion erected on Folly 
Hill by William Browne, of Salem, about 1750, was also re- 



Historical Address. 135 

moved a short distance away and in the great fire of 1845 
was burned, that fire which destroyed most of the buildings 
on both sides of that portion of Maple Street lying between 
Conant and Cherry streets. 

Many distinguished persons must have tarried here. The 
hall of the old house was the portion of the " Browne Hall " 
already referred to. This hall was used on all state occasions. 
The officers of the militia at the May trainings had their 
headquarters here. The selectmen of the town met here, as 
did also Jordan Lodge of Masons, and here also were held the 
meetings of the Danvers Lyceum. Dr. Braman once deliv- 
ered a very funny lecture in this hall, the subject of which 
was " Quackery." Many debates took place in the old hall. 
And it is said that here were held those dancing parties, at the 
mention of which old eyes kindle and limbs no longer sprightly 
beat time to the echoes of the darky Harry's fiddle, which 
still linger in their ears. 

Anti-Slavery Agitation. 

In the second quarter of the last century the anti-slavery 
agitation began in Danvers. It was an epoch in the history 
of the town. At first, and most of the time, only a small 
number became interested, but what they lacked in numbers, 
they certainly made up in enthusiasm. Not content with ex- 
pounding their doctrine in halls, and occasionally m churches, 
they seemed never so happy as when, having obtained entrance 
into a religious assembly, not only would they denounce the 
slave traffic, but in just as severe terms the church for its 
lukewarmness in the cause of the slave. At the New Mills, 
where the excitement seemed most intense, the services in 
the Baptist and Universalist churches were disturbed, so 
much so that the disturbers were arrested, and some of them 
lodged in jail. Like all reforms, the agitation drew to it 
many who were an injury to the cause. The impulses of 
these agitators were right, — this certainly, to-day, we do 



136 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

not question, — but their methods were not always correct, 
especially when they sought to interfere with the rights of 
others. They drew to their side many who became strong 
believers in the freedom of the slave, and some of them lived 
to see the day when the words of their great apostle, Garrison, 
came true. 

" Know this, O man! whate'er thy earthly fate, 

God never made a tyrant or a slave ; 
Woe, then, to those who dare to desecrate 

His glorious image ! for to all He gave 
Eternal rights, which none may violate, 

And by a mighty hand the oppressed he yet shall save ! " 

Slavery on our Territory. 

In connection with the anti-slavery excitement it may be 
interestmg to relate that slaves were owned here in early days; 
indeed, until after the close of the Revolutionary War. John 
Porter, an early comer, and who probably was the largest 
real estate owner who ever dwelt within the borders of the 
town, was a slave owner, for in the inventory of his estate, 
in 1676, we read: 

" Two negro servants valued at £40." 

His grandson, Benjamin Porter, deceased in 1727; and his 
will recites that he gives and bequeathes to his wife, Hannah 
Porter, his negro maid servant, and in his inventory said 
negro woman is appraised at £70. 

In the inventory taken in 1766 of estate of Capt. Samuel 
Endicott, of Danvers, who lived and died on the Endecott 
grant, the appraisers state, " Two old negros, in our opinion 
a charge on the estate, we do not appraise." 

In March, 1774, the executor of the will of Peter Putnam, 
of Danvers, advertised in the Salem Gazette, as follows: " A 
negro woman, about twenty-nine years of age, belonging to 
said estate, to be sold for want of employ." 

And in 1754 Daniel Epes, Jr., sold to Ebenezer Jacobs, for 



Introductory Address. 137 

the sum of £45 6s. 8d., lawful money, a negro boy named 
Primus. 

It is also an interesting fact that some of the strongest 
agitators in the anti-slavery movement in Danvers were 
descendants of these men who owned slaves. 

Communication with Other Towns. 

Previous to the year 1848 the only way of reaching other 
towns was by walking, by private conveyance, or by stage. 
The stages passing through this town were as follows : From 
Portsmouth, N. H., through Haverhill, Topsfield, Danvers 
Plains and Port to Salem and Boston; from Haverhill direct 
to Salem; from Newbury port to Boston over the Newbury- 
port Turnpike, which road was built in the early part of the 
nineteenth century, and passed through the upper part of 
the town; and another between Salem and Merrimac (the 
river), going from Salem through Danvers New Mills, North 
Danvers, Middleton, and North Andover, returning to Salem 
through South Andover, Middleton, and Tapley's Village. 
Later, coaches ran direct from Danvers proper through Dan- 
versport to Salem, and from Danvers Centre to Salem. In 
March, 1846, a charter was obtained for a steam railroad from 
Salem to Lawrence to pass through this town. Work was 
commenced upon the same, September 8, 1846, and the road 
was opened to South Danvers January 19, 1848; to North 
or present Danvers, July 1, 1848; and to Lawrence in Sep- 
tember of the same year. This road in Salem connected with 
the road to Boston. The following account of the celebration 
at the opening of the road to Lawrence will be of interest : 

" Monday, September 4, 1848, the completion of the road was 
celebrated. A train of eight cars left the depot of the Eastern Railroad 
in Salem at ten o'clock, and proceeding through Danvers (south and 
north), Middleton, and North Andover, carried about six hundred 
stockholders and invited guests to Lawrence. The road from North 
Danvers or Danvers Plains is quite straight and generall}' of easy 



138 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

grade to its terminus. The land all along abounds with the best 
material, a coarse gravel, for building the road, and the road bed 
appears to be remarkably solid and even. The country which it passes 
is mostly an agricultural district, and much of it under high cultiva- 
tion." 

Afterwards a railroad was built from Danvers to George- 
town, from Georgetown to Newburyport, and from Danvers 
to South Reading, bringing about another railway connection 
with Boston. 

Later on came the horse-cars, and still later, electrics, with 
which we are all familiar. 



Centennial of the Town. 

September 22, 1851, a town meeting was held in Granite 
Hall, North Danvers, and a committee appointed to make 
arrangements for the celebration of the one hvmdredth anni- 
versary of the life of the town, and on Wednesday, June 16, 
1852, the centennial was observed. It was a great success, 
though the day was oppressively hot, as is well remembered 
by some present here to-day. Hon. John W. Proctor was 
the orator on this occasion. After the procession a dinner 
took place imder a canvas, which was largely attended, and 
various toasts were responded to, but there was one sentiment 
sent from a native of the town then dwelling in a foreign 
country, and who was unable to be present, which occasioned 
great joy to the people of the town. " Education, a debt 
due from present to future generations." This was enclosed 
with a letter from Mr. George Peabody, of London, England, 
to the committee, and there was also another letter in which 
he announced a gift to the town of $20,000 for the pm-pose 
of erecting a building for a lyceum and library for the pro- 
motion of knowledge and morality. This gift was received 
with great applause. It was the first, but not the last, gift 
to the town from Mr, Peabody, by which we have become 



Historical Address. 139 

his debtors, and in these acts he endeared himself to us for 
all time. 

Division of Danvers. 

In 1855 Danvers was greatly stured by the petition to 
the legislature of Benjamin Goodridge and eighteen others, 
residents of the south part of the town, in which they recite 
that, owing to the large extent of territory in the town, increase 
of inhabitants, and distance between the principal villages, 
these things render it inconvenient for the transaction of 
the town business, and that an exigency has thereby arisen 
which calls for a division of the town. They, therefore, pray 
for a division of the same. This action created a storm of 
indignation, especially in the north part of the town, as was 
shown in the dispatch with which petitions against said divi- 
sion were presented to the General Court. From the Plains 
and the Port, from Putnamville, Tapleyville, and the Centre, 
from Beaver Brook and Swan's Crossing, came remonstrances 
long and loud, and it must also be recalled that some of the 
remonstrants were from the south part of the town. In 
the petitions of those favoring division various reasons were 
given, among others, that, which recited that the town had 
increased in population, was indeed true. We had at that 
time the rather unusual spectacle of two town houses, two 
high schools, and town meetings were held, first in one parish, 
then in the other. Petty jealousies had arisen, each parish 
seemed to try to get advantage of the other; one was accused 
of having all the orators, the other the money. Hearings 
were had, and finally. May 18, 1855, the General Court passed 
an act dividing the town, the part going off to be called South 
Danvers. This was accomplished, notwithstanding the efforts 
of the then Demosthenes of the north part of the town, the 
great war horse. When the result was known, great was the 
rejoicing in that part set off as South Danvers. Bells were 
rung, crackers fired, bonfires lighted, bands played, and a 



140 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

general good time indulged in. But, in the midst of this 
happiness, there were not a few who were to become residents 
of the new town, who did not feel to rejoice. The words 
of one of their number voiced the deep sorrow of their hearts, 
when he observed: 

" My chief objection to a division arises from a reluctance to break 
up the old associations. It is the misfortune of some of us that we 
cannot readily abandon old scenes, old names, and old friends. We 
like them because they are good and because they are old. This 
new measure plays the mischief with one's birthplace. I never was 
born in such a town as South Danvers, and if I claim to be a Danvers 
man I am impudently told I don't belong to Danvers. I am a for- 
eigner in my own birthplace and exposed to the ban of any political 
party which may arise, requiring a man to be born in the place of his 
nativity. Then the name South Danvers! It has a suburban odor 
and smacks of an appendage to a larger and better town. How 
degrading to part with that venerable name. We give it up with 
scarce a thought, and with it all the accumulated records and docu- 
ments of an hundred years. All the recorded evidence of births, 
marriages, and deaths, and we have to go out of town to hunt up our 
genealogies and birthrights. The tenement is empty and we must 
get new furniture to set up housekeeping. For a week or more we 
shall be without any town government, not even a constable to pre- 
serve the peace or a hog reeve to protect the swine. There will then 
be no fathers of the town, and — so sad — we shall all be in a state of 
orphanage. This town of South Danvers never sent heroes to the 
Concord fight. It is yet uncertain where the villages of Locustdale, 
Brookdale, and Rockville will find themselves. The Devil's Dishful! 
man don't yet know which town he is to live in, and he is yet to hear 
whether he is to fraternize with the Rocks or Blind Hole. At present 
he feels that he lives nowhere." 

Can it be that thoughts like these preyed upon the minds 
and hearts of the people of South Danvers for thirteen years ! 
And then, realizing what they had done in tearing themselves 
so ruthlessly from their dear old mother Danvers, and feeling 
that they could no longer lay claim to the old name, sought 
to drown their troubles and sorrows by losing their former 
identity in the name of Peabody! 



Historical Address. 141 

Peabody Institute. 

December 22, 1856, Mr. George Peabody, of London, 
writing from Boston to the trustees of the Peabody Institute, 
stated that 

" The population of Danvers is mostly too remote therefrom, and 
cannot very conveniently share fully its privileges. It has occurerd 
to me that a Branch Library might be established in Danvers, in some 
central position (probably the Plains), which would remedy the 
existing difficulty and would secure to the inhabitants of Danvers a 
more equal participation in the benefits, which it was my design to 
confer upon all. I therefore propose to make a donation of $10,000 
for the purpose of establishing a Branch Library, to be located as 
before mentioned, provided the suggestions and conditions hereinafter 
stated are satisfactory to all the parties in interest." 

Mr. Peabody desired that the new library be called the 
Branch Library of the Peabody Institute, and to be under 
the control of the present trustees. Three thousand dollars 
was to be expended at once for the purchase of books, and 
the fitting up of a room or rooms for their reception, and 
$7,000 dollars to be safely invested by the trustees, and the 
income used by the library and lyceum committee of the 
Institute for the increase of the library, payment of rent, 
and other expenses, the inhabitants of Danvers still to be 
entitled to full enjoyment of parent library, and the inhabi- 
tants of South Danvers to have same privilege in Branch 
Library. Mr. Peabody selected a committee to meet the 
trustees and library committee in relation to a Branch Library, 
consisting of the following persons : Joshua Silvester, Samuel 
Preston, William L. Weston, Milton P. Braman, James D. 
Black, and Matthew Hooper. In February, 1857, rooms 
in the Town House were fitted for the reception of books. 
Soon after the gift of Mr. Peabody, action was taken by the 
town, looking to the purchase of a lot of land, where might 
be placed a library building. April 18, 1857, Joshua Silvester, 
Simeon Putnam, and John R. Langley, for $4,000, conveyed 



142 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

to the town of Danvers a piece of land on Sylvan Street, 
containing four acres and seventy-five rods, and to it was 
given the name of " Peabody Park." This estate was con- 
veyed upon this condition that the premises, or any part 
thereof, shall never be occupied by any building except such 
as shall be used for the purpose of a public library, or lyceum, 
or both. The Branch Library was opened to the public 
Saturday, September 5, 1857, with 2,360 volumes. Later, 
Mr. Peabody added 2,000 volumes. 

In a letter dated Oakland, Md., October 30, 1866, and 
addressed to Milton P. Braman, Joshua Silvester, Francis 
Peabody, Jr., Samuel P. Fowler, Daniel Richards, Israel W. 
Andrews, Jacob F. Perry, Charles P. Preston, and Israel H. 
Putnam, Mr. Peabody announced a gift of $40,000, which, 
with the previous gift of $10,000, made a total of $50,000, 
which sum was to be held byjthese gentlemen, in trust, for the 
inhabitants of the town of Danvers, thus establishing an 
Institute in Danvers separate and distinct from the one in 
South Danvers, each town to relinquish all rights and 
privileges in the institute of the other town. This institute 
was to stand " for the promotion of knowledge and morality 
in the town of Danvers." The trustees were to set apart 
$30,000, the income to be used for lyceum and library pur- 
poses, and $20,000 to be set apart for the erection of a library 
building, which building he desired should be erected within 
two years. 

The town, at a legal meeting held March 18, 1867, voted 
that the selectmen of the town be, and they are, hereby author- 
ized to transfer to the trustees of the Peabody Institute the 
lot known as Peabody Park, for the purpose of erecting thereon, 
at such time as the trustees may deem expedient, a lyceum 
and library building; and May 1, 1867, the deed to the trustees 
was passed. 

The trustees caused a building to be erected upon the Park, 
Mr. Peabody having given an additional sum of $5,000 towards 



Historical Address. 143 

erection of building, and the same having reached completion, 
was dedicated with interesting and appropriate ceremonies 
Wednesday, July 14, 1869, in the presence of a large audience. 
A pleasing feature on this occasion was the presence of Mr. 
Peabody, and the citizens of the town derived great pleasure 
therefrom, and delighted to honor him, their benefactor. 
Mr. Peabody made an address, and in the same announced 
another gift of $45,000, making, with $55,000 already given, 
a total of $100,000. This was received with great applause. 
He also said, referring to the library: 

" And I trust it will show itself powerfully among all classes, old 
and young, and be a lasting benefit for many generations to come. I 
will do myself justice by saying, since some men doubt, that this 
springs from the natural sincerity of the heart. A very old writer 
has said that ' a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.' I do 
not exactly agree with that writer. I never have, and I never can, 
obliterate the feeling which has always existed within me that my 
birthplace is intimately associated with the town of Danvers. My 
friends, I can never expect to address you again collectively, but rest 
assured that wherever I may be, your town and its institutions will 
occupy a prominent place in my mind, and I hope that this institution 
will be through all time a source of pleasure and profit. I bid you all 
a most affectionate farewell." 

The intimation that the South Danvers rose did not smell 
quite so sweet by the name of Peabody as by the old name 
was very pleasing to the people of Danvers, and was not un- 
pleasing to the residents of Peabody who were present on 
that occasion. 

Mr. Peabody soon after returned to England, where, in 
London, November 4, 1869, he passed from the scenes of 
earth, after a life well spent in the service of and for the good 
of his fellow-men. Almost the last words he uttered were, 
*' Danvers, Danvers, don't forget." Great honors were paid 
to his life and memory. Funeral services were held in West- 
minster Abbey, after which his body was buried beneath the 
floor of its nave. Queen Victoria and her subjects would 



144 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

have been glad had his body remamed there, but m accordance 
with an oft-expressed desire of Mr. Peabody to be buried in 
Danvers, his wish was comphed with, and later, tenderly 
were his remains taken from the great abbey and placed on 
board an English war ship, and, convoyed by an American 
and a French ship, were carried across the Atlantic, and 
finally laid to rest in his native town. 

In respect for and admiration of the man who had done so 
much for London, the authorities caused to be inserted in the 
floor of the nave of the noble Minster, over the place of burial, 
a slab with an inscription thereon, reciting the fact of tem- 
porary burial there, and removal of body later to his native 
town in America, 

Here 

were deposited 

FROM Nov. 12 TO Dec. 11, 

1869 

the remains of 

GEORGE PEABODY 

THEN REMOVED TO HIS NATIVE COUNTRY 

AND BURIED AT DANVERS, NOW PEABODY, 

IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



" I HAVE PRAYED MT HeAVENLY FaTHER DAY BY DAY 

" That I might be enabled before I died to shew my gratitude 
" For the blessings which he has bestowed upon me, 
" By doing some great good to my fellow-men." 



" Let your light so shine before men, 

That they may see your good works 

And glorify your father 

Which is in heaven." 



Portion of Beverly Annexed to Danvers. 

Two years after the departure of the South Parish, a knock 
is heard at the door of the town asking for admission. It was 
from the people dwelling upon our eastern border, across the 
Porter's River, and whose territory was formerly a part of 



Historical Address. 145 

Salem Village of old, but for many years a part of the town 
of Beverly. The town of Beverly opposed, but the legisla- 
ture granted the request of the petitioners, and April 27, 1857, 
the territory in question was annexed. The reason given by 
those who desired to become a part of Danvers was that they 
lived near to Danvers and all their associations were with 
its people. When it was decided that this part of Beverly 
should become a part of Danvers, a lad scarce in his teens, 
but who had grown up beneath the shadow, and who had 
wandered over the top and sides of that beautiful old hill 
which then became ours, could hardly control his feelings of 
indignation that his town should without more of a struggle 
part with that ancient and endearing landmark. 

War between the States. 

A few years go by, and Danvers, in common with the people 
of our land, awoke one morning to find our beloved country 
involved in a civil war — that most to be dreaded of all wars, 
brother fighting against brother. While the election of 
Abraham Lincoln as President was the tlirect cause, the 
struggle had been hastened by those people already referred 
to — the Abolitionists. When war was declared, and troops 
called for by the government, the men of Danvers, worthy 
of their revolutionary ancestors, hastened to the defence of 
their country, fathers and sons and brothers, all eager to do 
duty in this most holy and righteous cause. They went from 
their homes to defend and save that which the fathers with 
their life blood had purchased, and now that rents had been 
made in their country, they were willing, if needs be, to shed 
their own blood, if thereby the Union, which had been so 
suddenly torn asunder, might be cemented again, so strong 
that it never afterwards could be parted. 

How well I remember, as a high-school boy, Friday after- 
noon, April 18, 1861, looking out of the hall window of the 
school building on the Holten Street side, and observing the 



146 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Danvers men from Tapleyville and the Centre marching to 
the music of the drum and fife to the station, there to take 
the cars for Salem, to join the companies to which they 
belonged. I recall that three months later, on the return of 
the companies, how one of these men came not back, but 
lingered behind in a southern prison, having been captured 
at Bull Run, that first great battle of the war. The memory 
of these events lingers fresh in my mind as if it were only 
yesterday that they occurred. Afterwards two companies 
were formed in our own town, and many of our citizens allied 
themselves to other companies. For four long years the war 
went on. What years they were to the people of this land! 
How hope and despair alternated! Yet many never lost faith, 
never doubted that the end would bring victory to the North. 
During these years our brave boys fought, bled, and many 
died, that you and I might still have a country to love. We 
honor and esteem the men of revolutionary days and we do 
well. It is our duty, and he who does not is recreant to his 
sacred trust as an American citizen. Just as strong is our 
honor and esteem for the men of 1861, for what would the 
work of the fathers have profited us if the boys in blue had 
not gone forth to save their country when hands were raised 
to destroy it? God bless the boys who wore the blue — the 
Grand Army of the Republic — their ranks fast thinning on 
this side, but those who remain, still marching steadily on to 
one day join their comrades waiting to receive them on the 
eternal camping ground. 

State Hospital for Insane. 
In 1874, upon one of the highest hills in our town, it being 
a portion of a grant made by the town of Salem in 1637 to 
William Hathorne, said hill bearing the name of Hathorne, 
was erected by the state of Massachusetts a long line of build- 
ings of brick and stone, to be used as a hospital for the state's 
insane; and for over a quarter of a century has it stood like 



Historical Address. 147 

a castle or beacon, seen from all about the surrounding 
country. 

Hundreds of patients have been confined here during all 
these years and been cared for by a corps of skilled physicians 
and attendants. The situation of the hospital is most pleas- 
ant, a perfect panorama of scenery being visible for miles 
around, although in beholding and contemplating the same, 
the enjoyment is somewhat tinged with sadness as one 
remembers the unhappy lives confined within the walls of 
the asylum. 

Coming to Danvers of John G. Whittier. 
In 1876, on invitation of his cousins, Mrs. Woodman and 
the Misses Johnson, who had recently purchased the pleasant 
home of William A. Lander, situate in the north part of our 
town, and on the grant made to John Putnam, an early settler, 
Mr. Whittier came to live with them, and from that time 
until his decease spent here a large portion of the years. To 
this delightful and pleasant home he gave the name " Oak 
Knoll," a name which will always remain and ever remind 
the citizens of Danvers of the beloved poet and friend. Here 
he received many distinguished visitors and friends, and while 
seldom appearing among the people, yet it was always a 
source of pleasure to them to know that he dwelt within our 
borders. Many of his later poems were written in Danvers. 

From this time on events follow in rapid succession ; among 
others, the war with Spain in 1898, when the young men of 
Danvers responded to the call of their country, as did their 
fathers before them; and from the town departed a company, 
all of whom, but one who sickened and died from disease, 
returned when the war was over. Changes have taken place, 
some of them most wonderful. The old seems ever to be 
giving place to the new, but we think not always better ways 
than those of the past. We have grown in population; we 



148 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

are to-day a large town; but the time is not sufficient to relate 
more. Recent events are fresh in all our minds. 

Conclusion. 
We who dwell here have had our lines cast in pleasant places. 
What better time than now to be impressed with this fact! 
Wander over our town to-day, and you will find it a charming 
place, in which are fine drives, lined with beautiful trees, for 
which we are very much indebted to a former citizen, whom 
we hold in sincere affection for his perseverance in securing 
their planting, so many years ago, and which we to-day so 
highly prize, — Joshua Silvester, You will find, also, hills and 
valleys, and green meadows; also charming scenery, espe- 
cially as seen from the hilltops, both inland and marine, 
making such delightful pictures; old homes which still cling 
to the soil, the homes of Rebecca Nourse, of Lieut. Thomas 
Putnam, George Jacobs, Nathan Reed, and of Samuel Hoi ten ; 
homes where were born Generals Israel Putnam, Moses 
Porter, Col. Israel Hutchinson, and Gen. Grenville M. Dodge; 
the homes of Joseph and James Putnam, of Bishop, and of 
Daniel Rea, and many more; the Peabody Institute, set 
in the midst of the pleasant park, and which calls to mind 
the donor, George Peabody, a distinguished son of Danvers, 
who was beloved and respected in two hemispheres, and whom 
we are proud to call our benefactor. These, and many more 
which might be mentioned, speak of the past. You will 
find to-day a people, kind and true, good neighbors and 
friends, the home makers who, no less than those who have 
become distinguished in the past, have in the humble but 
also important walks of life, by their lives and conversation, 
done so much to make our town a good community ; a people 
peculiar in their dislike of shams, quick to detect any attempt 
to affect that which is not possessed, and who duly appreciate 
true wealth, the wealth of character, rating every person at 
his real value. 



The Elm-Tree's Story. 149 

We rejoice that it was the farmers, as distinguished from 
the merchants and traders of Salem, who gave us this goodly- 
home — this town of ours. In all the changes that have 
taken place the farmers have always been with us. Go where 
you will, and you will find no better farms, no finer land under 
cultivation; our farmers have ever wooed and won from the 
earth the fruits hidden in her soil. 

May they who shall be dwellers here when the two hun- 
dredth anniversary shall occur, look, as we do to-day, on one 
of the fairest places, and be proud, as we are, to call the same 
by that dearest of all names, — " Home, Sweet Home." 



The Elm-Tree's Story, 
by josephine roache. 
If we could understand the language old 

That hides from us in voices of the pine, 
Could guess the secret of June's murmuring leaves, 

What stories of the past could we divine! 
What revelation of a distant day 

When this, our well-beloved town, was young, 
If we could learn the meaning of that speech 

In which the trees have since creation sung. 

As thus I mused beneath an aged tree, 

An old inhabitant of Danvers town, 
The great elm swayed from trunk to topmost branch, 

And thrice it bowed its verdant leafy crown; 
Then spake in slow and stately harmonies. 

I listened while the tree its story told, 
And on my vision under that green shade 

The changing pageant of the past unrolled. 

A picturesque procession wound along ; 

Quaint Puritanic ruff and doublet came 
In friendly march with Quakers' quiet garb ; 

In coif and kerchief followed maid and dame ; 



150 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

A sachem's feathers proudly waved beside 
The martial Continental buff and blue ; 

Now farthingale swept by ; now towered calash ; 
Now girls in college gowns were full in view. 

The elm-tree said: " My kinsfolk saw the barge 

Of Endicott float on the river's tide ; 
T watched the Indian's forest camp-fire blaze 

Where now his children's children bide. 
In my green branches brown Tituba saw 

The gleam of witches' weird and baleful glance ; 
Once in their piteous delusion came 

The children from the dreary haunted manse. 

" One early April morn, a little group 

Of Danvers townsmen gathered here ; 
The volunteers for Lexington marched by 

To sound of drum and bell and ringing cheer. 
Here, too, one April night, were sadly borne 

The Danvers minute-men who bravely died, 
Swept onward by that glorious impulse strong 

When rose, full flood, the patriotic tide. 

" When cannon sounded through the waiting air, 

From far-off fighting on old Bunker Hill, 
The elm-tree listened with its townsfolk dear. 

And felt with them the breath of freedom thrill. 
'Twas mine to see how in that rising grand, 

Which kept the Union sacred and secure, ^ 
The old town held to ancient lineage true. :":' 

Ah, long that golden record shall endure ! 

" How many midnights closest shade I drew 

Around the fugitive from slavery's shame! 
How often whispered courage to his soul, 

How with him hailed that morn when freedom came ! 
Here sometimes strolled a poet, honored guest ; 

He sang the slave and freeman's brotherhood, 
For Whittier was Mother Nature's child 

And all her signs and voices understood. 

" I saw long since the earliest schoolhouse built, 
And now I mark the happy morning throng 

Of hurrying children, whom to greet I bend, 
And whom my orioles welcome with a song. 



The Elm-Tree's Story. 151 

What names the beadroU of my memory bears! 

Holten and Bowditch sported 'neath my shade; 
How many Porters, Putnams, have I known! 

'Twas yesterday that Moody round me played. 

" How many times on each town meeting day 

Have citizens returning here discussed, 
Under the stars, the ehns all listening round. 

With trenchant jest and controversial thrust, 
The plans propounded for the common weal! 

For liberty must keep her watch and ward. 
At last from seeming discords of debate 

The people's voice is heard in wise accord. 

" The town and I grew up together, strong 

And sturdy growths, from youth to this, her prime ; 
And in our riper years we wait to hail 

The coming of that better, gentler time 
When fame shall write the highest on her scroll, 

As here in Danvers, so in all the world, 
The men who victories of Peace have won, 

Who bear her stainless standard wide unfurled." 

The services were closed with the singing, by the choir and 
the whole assembly, of the lines : 

" Be thou, God, exalted high, 
And as thy glory fills the sky, 
So let it be on earth displayed 
Till thou art here as there obeyed." 



152 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

The Banquet. 

The banquet, served at the Town Hall, on the afternoon of 
Monday, the 16th, by Caterer Tanner, of Haverhill, was a very 
enjoyable affair. Covers were laid for four hundred persons, 
and every seat was taken. Hon. Samuel L. Sawyer presided 
at the postprandial exercises. 

Prayer was offered by Rev. Edson J. Reifsnider. William 
B. Sullivan read letters of regret, among them one from Ex- 
Gov. George S. Boutwell, who stated that he was present at 
the banquet fifty years ago, and would have liked to attend 
this one. Secretary of the Navy William H. Moody, who 
passed his boyhood days in Danvers, and was an attendant 
at the Holten High School, explained that an official engage- 
ment in Washington detained him. Sen. George Frisbee 
Hoar and Gov. Winthrop Murray Crane also sent regrets, 
and a telegram was received from John J. Myers, speaker 
of the House of Representatives, saying that he was unex- 
pectedly delayed by a roll-call, and could not arrive in time 
for the banquet. 

The program was as follows : 

Introductory Remarks by the Chairman, Samuel L. Sawyer 

Reading of Letters from Invited Guests, by the Secretary, 

W. B. Sullivan 
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Hon. John L. Bates, Lt.-Gov. 
The City of Beverly, Mayor Samuel Cole 

The Town of Peabody, Rep. Charles H. Goulding 

The Town of Danvers, Selectman R. D. Bates 

Improvement Society, Dr. W. W. Eaton, President 

G. A. R. and Kindred Organizations, Capt. Charles H. Masury 
Danvers Women's Association, Mrs. I. E. Kenney, President 

Danvers School Committee, A. P. Learoyd, Secretary 

" Need of Higher Education," Hon. J. F. Porter 

" Marking Historic Places," Rep. Charles H. Preston 

" Impressions of Danvers, Past and Present," William M. Currier 
" Young Men, Natives of Danvers, Who Have Made 

Homes Elsewhere," John E. Maguire, Haverhill 



The Banquet. 153 

" Energy of the Early Settlers of Danversport," 

John W. Porter, Esq. 
" Early Residents of Putnamville," William E. Putnam 

" Spirit of Our Founders," D. N. Crowley, Esq. 

" Judge Holten," W. B. Sullivan, Esq. 

" Past, Present, and Future," Andrew H. Paton 

" Our Message to the Bi-Centennial," Hon. A. P. White 

Singing, " Auld Lang Syne," By the Audience 

The Menu. 

Young Roast Turkey, Cranberry Sauce 

Mashed Potatoes 

Cold Ham , Cold Tongue 

Dressed Tomatoes Dressed Cucumbers 

Lobster Salad Chicken Croquettes, French Peas 

Banana Fritters, Wine Sauce 

ICE CRE.IM 

Frozen Pudding Orange Bombe 

Watermelon Ice Cream Neapolitan Ice Cream 

Orange and Raspberry Sherbet 

CAKE 

Pound Lady Fingers Fancy Cakes 

Assorted Macaroons Almond Drops 

Fruit Cake 

Strawberries and Cream 

Rolls Butter Tea 

Coffee 

In opening the after-dinner speaking, the toastmaster, 
Mr. Sawyer, said: 

" Fellow-Citizens and Invited Guests: I realize that it is not the 
duty of a presiding officer to make a speech, but I shall not be loyal 
to my own convictions if I refrain from expressing at this time my 
appreciation of the high honor which has been conferred upon me by 
the Committee of Arrangements, to preside at this, the one hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the town of Danvers. We 
have a long list of speakers on many different subjects, and it will 
be my duty to see that the instructions of the committee in regard 



154 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

to the limit of time allowed each speaker is strictly adhered to. After 
careful deliberation it has been found necessary to limit the time of 
each speaker to five or ten minutes if we are to conclude this service 
in a reasonable time, and I trust that all the speakers will cooperate 
with the toastmaster in reaching this very desirable conclusion. 
We have a number of letters from invited guests unable to be present, 
from whom you will be pleased to hear, and I will now ask your atten- 
tion while they are being read by the secretary, William B. Sullivan, 
Esq." 

Mr. Sullivan here read the following letters: 

White House. 

Washington, D. C, May 24, 1902, 
William B. Sullivan, Clerk of Committee, 
Danvers, Mass. : 
My dear Sir, — The President has been much gratified by the 
invitation which you have been pleased to extend to him to attend the 
celebration that is being arranged for June 16 and 17, and he regrets 
that the pressure of his official duties and engagements will preclude 
him from sending an acceptance. 

With assurances that your thoughtfulness is appreciated, believe me, 
Very truly yours, 

George B. Cortelyou, 
Secretary to the President. 

Navy Department. 

Washington, May 12, 1902. 
William B. Sullivan, Esq., Danvers, Mass.: 

Dear Sir, — I have to acknowledge and thank you for your kind 
invitation to attend the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth 
anniversary of the independent municipal existence of the town of 
Danvers. I very much regret that on June 16 I am compelled to be 
in Washington, where I have an official engagement. It would give 
me much personal satisfaction to be present on that occasion, but I 
must content myself with sending congratulations to the people of 
the town on its honorable past and my best wishes for its future. 
Yours very truly, 

W. H. Moody, 
Secretary of the Navy. 



The Banquet. 155 

United States Senate. 

Washington, D. C, May 12, 1902. 
W. B. Sullivan, Esq., Danvers, Mass.: 

My dear Sir, — Your invitation to attend the celebration of the 
one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Danvers' independent munici- 
pal existence on June 16 and 17, 1902, is very attractive indeed. 

My great grandfather, the Rev. Benjamin Prescott, was minister 
in the part of Salem which was afterward Danvers and which later 
became Peabody. His dwelling house is still standing there, and the 
tomb where he and many of his family were laid to rest is there. So 
I have some title to be counted as a Danvers man by descent. But 
I suppose the 16th and 17th of June will be among the busiest days 
of a very busy session of Congress. It does not seem likely that I can 
get away. 

I am, with high regard, 

Very truly yours, 

Geo. F. Hoar. 

United States Senate. 

Washington, D. C, May 12, 1902. 
W. B. Sullivan, Esq., Danvers, Mass.: 

My dear Sir, — I have received your letter of the 10th containing 
the very kind invitation of the town of Danvers to attend the cele- 
bration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its independent 
municipal existence on June 16 and 17. I regret to say that there is 
no prospect that Congress will be adjourned at that date, and therefore 
I shall be unable to leave Washington, as the press of public business 
is very great. With many thanks for the invitation. 
Very truly yours, 

H. C. Lodge. 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
Executive Department. 

Boston, May 15, 1902. 

Mr. William B. Sullivan, Clerk of General Committee, 
Danvers, Mass. : 
My dear Sir, — I beg to acknowledge receipt of the courteous 
invitation of the town of Danvers to attend the celebration of the 
one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of its inde- 
pendent municipal existence on June 16 and 17, and for which I thank 



156 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

you. I assure you that I should be glad to participate in this cele- 
bration were it not for the great pressure of my official duties at the 
State House. The legislative session will doubtless at that time be 
drawing to a close, and I do not feel able to take upon myself any 
additional responsibilities. 

I take pleasure in sending you, however, my best, wishes for the 
continued prosperity of your town, and beg to remain, 
Yours very truly, 

W, M. Crane. 



Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
Council Chamber. 

Boston, June 6, 1902. 
William B. Sullivan, Esq., Clerk of Committee, 
Danvers, Mass. : 
My dear Sir, — I accept with pleasure the invitation of the town 
of Danvers to be present at the celebration of its one hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary on June 16. Thanking the committee, I remain, 
Very truly yours, 

John L. Bates. 

Supreme Court. 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

May 24, 1902. 
Chief Justice Holmes regrets exceedingly that his engagements do 
not permit his accepting the kind invitation of the town of Danvers 
for June 16-17. 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
Office of the Attorney-General. 

Boston, June 5, 1902. 
William B. Sullivan, Clerk, 

Committee of the Town of Danvers : 
My dear Sir, — I have received with great pleasure your courteous 
invitation to attend the celebration of the anniversary of the estab- 
lishment of the town of Danvers. 

I trust that it may be possible for me to accept your hospitality 
on one or the other of the days fixed. 

Very truly yours, 

Herbert Parker. 



The Banquet. 157 

Massachusetts Senate. 
President's Room. 

Boston, June 10, 1902. 
William B. Sullivan, Esq., Danvers, Mass.: 

Dear Sir, — I beg to acknowledge receipt through you of invitation 
to be present on the occasion of the celebration of the one hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary of your town. It would give me great 
pleasure to attend, but I have a previous engagement for the 17th and 
I do not dare to make engagements that will take me away from the 
Senate at this stage of the session. Thanking you for the invitation, 
I remain, 

Yours truly, 

RuFus A. Soule. 

Law Office of Long & Hemenway. 

Boston, May 23, 1902. 
My dear Sir, — I very much appreciate the courtesy paid me by 
the town of Danvers in inviting me to attend the one hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary of its incorporation, and much regret that my 
intended absence from the state on the 16th, and an engagement for 
the Seventeenth of June prevent my acceptance. Thanking you for 
your courtesy, I am, 

Very truly yours, 

John D. Long. 

Brackett & Roberts, Counsellors-at-Law. 

Boston, June 9, 1902. 
William B. Sullivan, Esq.: 

Dear Sir, — I am in receipt of the kind invitation of the town of 
Danvers to the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its establish- 
ment, on the 16th and 17th inst. It would give me great pleasure 
to attend, but my engagements for the dates named are such as to 
prevent. Regretting this, and cordially thanking you for the invi- 
tation, I am. 

Very truly yours, 

J. Q. A. Brackett. 

No. 1 Broadway, New York, 
May 26, 1902. 
William B. Sullivan, Esq., Danvers, Mass.: 

Dear Sir, — I am in receipt of yours of May 23, extending to me 
an invitation to attend the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth 



158 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

anniversary of the establishment of the independent municii^al exist- 
ence of Danvers on June 16 and 17, 1902. 

It would be a great pleasure to me to be present on that occasion , 
it being my own birthplace, but my engagements are such that it will 
be impossible for me to attend. 

Thanking you for the invitation, and extending my best wishes for 
the future prosperity of the old town, I am, 
Very truly yours, 

Granville M. Dodge. 

Boston, June 6, 1902. 
William B. Sullivan, Esq., Danvers, Mass.: 

Dear Sir, — I thank you and the town of Danvers very much for 
the complimentary invitation to be present at the celebration of the 
one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of its munici- 
pal independence, and regret that my engagements are such that I 

am unable to accept. 

Very truly yours, 

Richard Olney. 

53 State Street, Boston, 
June 2, 1902. 
My dear Sir, — I fear that I have neglected your invitation to be 
present at the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary 
of the incorporation of the town of Danvers. 

As the time approaches I realize that I must decline. As I was 
present fifty years ago, I am anxious to be with you on the coming 
anniversary, but I must put the opportunity aside. 
Very truly yours, 

George S. Boutwell. 

County Treasurer's Office, Salem, Mass., 
June 7, 1902. 
Mr. William B. Sullivan, Clerk of Committee, 
Danvers, Mass. : 
My dear Sir, — Your very kind invitation to be present at the 
celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town 
of Danvers, to be held on June 16 and 17, is duly received. I cannot 
at the present time decide whether or not I can be present. It would, 
however, give me very great pleasure, and I fully appreciate the 

invitation. 

Very respectfully yours, 

David J. Robinson. 



The Banquet. 159 

City of Salem, Mass., 
Mayor's Office, May 13, 1902. 
William B. Sullivan, Esq., Danvers, Mass.: 

Dear Sir, — I have your kind invitation to attend the celebration 
of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the municipal exist- 
ence of Danvers, and beg to accept the same with my sincere regards 
for your kindness. 

I trust that the celebration will be an affair that will linger long in 
the minds of the Danvers citizens, and in the years to come, when 
Danvers perhaps may be an enterprising city, they will look back 
upon the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Danvers as an epoch 
in her history. 

Thanking you once again for your kindness, I remain, 

Yours respectfully, 

John F. Hurley, Mayor. 

City of Beverly, Mass., 

City Hall, May 12, 1902. 

Mr. William B. Sullivan, 

Clerk of the General Committee, Danvers, Mass. : 

Dear Sir, — Your letter of the 10th inst., inviting me to attend the 

one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the independent municipal 

existence of the town of Danvers on June 16 and 17, received. 

Please accept my thanks for the invitation, and I shall be most 

pleased to attend. 

Yours respectfully, Samuel Cole, Mayor. 

Peabody, Mass., June 4, 1902. 
W. B. Sullivan, Esq.: 

My dear Sir, — Replying to the kind invitation of May 15 to 

attend the Danvers celebration, I thank you most sincerely and shall 

hope to be present. 

Very truly yours, C. H. Goulding. 

Selectmen's Department, Topsfield, Mass., 
May 19, 1902. 
William B. Sullivan, 

Clerk of Committee on Celebration : 
Sir, — It is with pleasure I accept your kind invitation to attend 
the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Danvers' 
independent municipal existence on June 16 and 17, 1902. 

Yours very truly, W. Donaldson, 

Chairman of Board of Selectmen. 



160 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Office of the Town Clerk, Peabody, Mass., 
May 16, 1902. 
William B. Sullivan, Esq., 

Clerk of the General Committee : 
Dear Sir, — The Board of Selectmen wish me to express to the 
town of Danvers their thanks for the invitation extended to the town 
of Peabody to participate in the anniversary celebration, and at a 
meeting of the Board held Thursday, May 15, 1902, the following 
action was taken : 

Voted: That the invitation of the town of Danvers to the town of 
Peabody to participate in the celebration of the one hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of its independent municipal 
existence on June 15, 16, and 17, 1902, be accepted, and that the 
citizens of the town be requested through the press to do all they can 
to assist in making the celebration a success. 
Yours respectfully, 

Elmer M. Poor, Tow7i Clerk, 

Office of the Town Clerk, Peabody, Mass., 
May 31, 1902. 
William B. Sullivan, Esq., 
Clerk of Committee : 
Dear Sir, — The Board of Selectmen wish me to thank the commit- 
tee through you for the invitation to attend the celebration on June 
16 and 17, 1902, and at a meeting of the Board held Thursday, May 
29, 1902, the following action was taken: 

Voted: That the invitation to the Board by the town of Danvers to 
attend the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of 
the establishment of its independent municipal existence on June 16 
and 17, 1902, be accepted. 

Yours respectfully, 

Elmer M. Poor, Town Clerk. 

Office of Selectmen of the Town of Middleton, Mass. 

June 3, 1902. 
William B. Sullivan, 

Clerk of the General Committee : 
Dear Sir, — Please accept my thanks for the cordial invitation to 
attend the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of 
the town of Danvers on June 16 and 17. 
I will endeavor to be present. 

Yours, Maurice E. Tyler. 



The Banquet 161 

The Board of Selectmen, Peabody, Mass., 
May 21, 1902. 
Mr. William B, Sullivan, 

Clerk of the General Committee, Danvers, Mass. : 
Dear Sir, — I accept with pleasure your invitation to attend the 
celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the inde- 
pendent municipal existence of the town of Danvers. 
Yours very truly, 

Andrew N. Jacobs, Chairman. 

The Toastmaster: 

The history of Danvers during the last one hundred and fifty years 
has been honorable and patriotic. She has begun her civic life with 
high ideals, and has endeavored to live up to them. She has been an 
important part of the state, her people have ever been ready to respond 
to the calls of duty, and her sons have given up their lives in all the 
great conflicts in which this country has been engaged in defence of 
the right. We have with us to-day a gentleman of education and 
experience, who is well \'ersed in the early traditions which have made 
this country great, and who can tell us the things necessary for great- 
ness in town and state. I have the pleasure of introducing his honor, 
Lieut. -Gov. John L. Bates. 

Lieutenant-Governor Bates responded as follows: 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: The chairman has no stop 
watch and has already informed me that the time limit did not apply 
to me, but I noticed that when he made his remarks he spoke as if 
it did. I assure you that it is impossible for a man, even though he 
possessed the eloquence of Demosthenes, or the wisdom of Solomon, to 
attempt to respond to thoughts of this kind in any one sixth of an hour. 

As I look now mto the faces of this audience, with a feeling of grati- 
tude towards your fathers because they did not kill off all the witches 
in their time, I feel that it would be impossible for me to do justice 
to the witches of the present day. Your committee has very kindly 
taken us foreigners around your town and showed us some of its his- 
toric places. We were told you had the oldest houses, the oldest shoe 
factory, and the oldest people that lived in the community. I am not 
qualified to judge of either the houses or the factories, but I want Dr. 
Rice to know he is mistaken in regard to the people. I have seen no 
old people, but all I have seen have the spirit of youth and the elastic 
step of the young, as I have seen them on this day of the celebration. 



162 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

I think that perhaps Danvers and the commonwealth are the same 
in their history ; that in which you take great pride, the old common- 
wealth takes greatest pride, and as I listened to the address of your 
historical orator this morning, I found that Danvers is typical of the 
commonwealth. Then, as I visited the place where Governor Gage 
at one time stopped, and saw the birthplace of Israel Putnam, the 
home of poet Whiittier, whose lips were touched with fire, I could not 
but think that as I read on the various tablets about your town the 
story of your history, so there also is told the history of our 
commonwealth. 

I have read that in the days prior to the Revolution your fathers 
instructed their representative that he must in no wise submit to 
the claims of the British Parliament in regard to taxation and in- 
fringement of the liberties of your people, and it was only by unutter- 
able fatigues and vast expenditures of blood and money that their 
rights and liberties were obtained. There you have the history 
of Massachusetts, — unutterable fatigues, struggles, and sacrifices 
have been the character of the foundation upon which our state has 
been erected. 

When we read in history of the commonwealth, we dwell particu- 
larly upon the days of the colonies, because they were days of priva- 
tions, days of sacrifices, and days of struggles. We go on to the days 
of the Revolution, and we are never tired of teUing that story, because 
there again is the story of struggles and sacrifices. We read of the 
time when Old Ironsides was manned by sons of Massachusetts, and 
find it tells the same story. We come to the time when the Sixth 
Regiment marched through Baltimore, when sons from the North 
fought sons from the South; to the battle of Gettysburg, when the 
sea of blue mingled with the sea of gray, and we find that the brightest 
pages, the pages which most attract our attention, are the pages of 
struggle and sacrifice. 

You tell me, as you pride yourself on your old First Church, that 
Massachusetts stands for religion, and it is true. We rejoice because 
it does, but we know that the Pilgrims and Puritans came to these 
shores across stormy seas ; that it was sacrifice and struggle that gave 
us the right to become a community where men may worship God 
according to the dictates of their own consciences; that the early 
Puritans denied themselves even the necessities of life m order that they 
might endow that institution. Harvard College. I remember that 
all these men have struggled, and have struggled in order that Massa- 
chusetts and education may be synonymous. 



The Banquet. 163 

It was such men as Israel Putnam, General Warren at Bunker Hill, 
and Garrison, with his indomitable energy, that enabled the nation to 
stand for liberty. 

To you, citizens of Danvers, I bring congratulations of the common- 
wealth on this day. I congratulate you on the history of your town, of 
which you may be rightly proud. Struggle and sacrifice are the founda- 
tion of most of that which we enjoy to-day. I believe the sons are 
not going to be second to the fathers in defence of those things which 
have been bought at such a price. They may not be called upon to 
draw the sword, but whether it be in the caucus, the town meeting, 
in church, or in the halls of the legislatiu-e, they will be found true 
to the ideals for which the fathers fought and which have made Dan- 
vers a name that has been regarded by all as one synonymous with 
struggle, sacrifice, and the loftiest aspirations. 

Note. — Mayor John F. Hurley, of Salem, was expected to follow 
Lieutenant-Governor Bates, but he was not present, and Chairman 
Sawyer said: " Salem was provoked when Danvers set up in business 
for herself, and perhaps she is not yet over it and she does not wish to 
take part in these proceedings to-day." 

The Toastmaster: 

That our neighbors have been prospering as well as ourselves is a 
cause of great satisfaction. Some have outgrown the old-fashioned 
town government and have taken upon themselves the responsibilities 
of city life. I now present to you the mayor of one of the youngest 
cities in the state, the Hon. Samuel Cole, of Beverly. 

Mayor Cole in response spoke of the friendly relations 
between Beverly and Danvers, and said that he accounted in 
part for Danvers' enterprise and prosperity by the fact that 
she took a slice of Beverly at one time. He said: " There is 
no line between us — our interests are identical." 

The Toastmaster : 

It sometimes happens, in the order of nature, that the family is 
broken up by the growth of the children who, becoming men and 
women, desire to have homes of their own. This sentiment is not 
always confined to the family ; towns even become possessed with the 
same desire. We have with us to-day a gentleman who represents a 



164 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

town, formerly a part of Danvers, but which desired some years ago 
to do business alone. How successful she has been we shall soon hear. 
I now introduce Charles H. Goulding, representative of Peabody. 

Representative Goulding responded. He spoke of 
the value of the work of " historical cranks," who make such 
celebrations as this interesting, profitable and useful, and 
alluded to the common associations of the two towns which 
were formerly one. 

The Toastmaster : 

We are interested in all things concerning Danvers to-day. We 
desire to listen to the statement of its material prosperity by one who 
knows. I will now call upon Mr. R. D. Bates, selectman of Danvers. 

Mr. Bates responded as follows: 

Of the present I care not to speak, but of the past I may talk with 
perfect freedom. For twenty-three years Mr. Pope has been one of 
the selectmen of our town. His long term of service testifies that the 
town has full confidence in his ability, integrity, and fidelity. Familiar 
with every phase of the office, ready at all times to give answer to 
the questions that are so frequently asked of the board in regard to 
its action and policy, in full touch with two generations of the in- 
habitants of Danvers, he responds freely in regard to their history, 
and the remote and immediate steps that have led to its present 
condition. And here, in commemorating the past, I know you will 
gladly respond to the declaration of " Well done, good and faithful 
servant," and hope that he may long continue to serve the town as 
a member of the board of selectmen. 

Mr. Hines has spoken so fully of the past that it is needless for 
me to attempt its portrayal. It is a history of which we may be proud, 
and in this, our hundred and fiftieth anniversary, express our grati- 
tude for our inheritance. It is ours to guard with zealous care, to 
foster its moral, social, and pecuniary interests. So far as these are 
concerned, you have a right to ask of the officials that they constantly 
seek its truest interests. The long list of worthy men who have been 
chosen to guard these interests in the past have, in a good degree, con- 
tributed to the welfare of our town. 

The past fifty years of our history has witnessed a fair degree of 
growth in population and material progress, and this has brought 



The Banquet. 165 

many calls upon the selectmen. In that period we have had two wars 
that called upon the inhabitants for service in the army of our country. 
In that hour, when the very existence of our nation was threatened, 
the selectmen's duties were arduous indeed; patriots, they made the 
honor of the town secure, and have had constant watch and care for 
the veteran, fully recognizing his service, and being the willing channel 
for every bounty a grateful people bestowed. 

In the Spanish War they met the need of the hour, sending the sons 
of the town who volunteered forth to battle, and welcoming their 
return, proud of their patriotism and service. 

They have been the warm friends of improvement, — the plants 
for gas and electric lights, the trolley and steam cars, the macadam 
road, the steam fire engine, telephone and manufactories, and last 
but not least, the shade trees and well-kept lawns. 

I close, most earnestly wishing for the continued prosperity of the 
good old town of Danvers. 

The Toastmaster: 

The beauty of a town is dependant on the public enterprise of its 
citizens. The Danvers Improvement Society deserves well of this 
town for the good work it is now doing; how well. Dr. W. W. Eaton, 
president, will now tell us. 

Dr. Eatox responded briefly, bringing to mind the success- 
ful and important work of that organization, as in perfect ac- 
cord and harmony with the general spirit of advancement of 
the nation's interests. He spoke particularly of the public park 
of some thirty acres which the society had purchased from 
the heirs of Eben G. Berry, and asked the cooperation of the 
citizens, first in raising the necessary money to complete the 
payments for the same and second, to beautify and adorn it. 
He paid a high compliment to the late Conrad Juul, who with 
him had started the movement which culminated in the park 
purchase. 

The Toastmaster: 

Danvers has always been noted for its patriotism. WTienever the 
state or nation has been in need of help its sons have promptly 
responded to the call. Capt. C. H. Masury will now speak on 
the G. A. R. and kindred organizations. 



166 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Captain Masury responded as follows: 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I feel highly honored in being 
called upon to speak on this historic occasion; more especially do I 
feel honored that I am to respond to the " Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic," an organization while not as old as some of the organizations 
that we are honoring to-day, to me, and to most of you, I think, 
stands equal in honor to all, and one that has contributed largely to 
make possible this anniversary of our dear old town. 

WhUe you are familiar with its inception, organization, and work, 
perhaps it will not be out of place to refresh your memory a little. 
Soon after the close of the War of the Rebellion, the old soldiers, — 
now respected citizens, — contrary to the predictions of some overwise 
and pessimistic politicians, seeing the need of affiUation with comrades 
who had stood shoulder to shoulder in the struggle, sought some means 
of coming together in an organized body that would give the true and 
perfect comradeship that had sustained them through the bloody 
conflict. Thus started the Grand Army of the Republic in the states 
of Illinois and Indiana in 1865. Massachusetts soon followed, and in 
October, 1866, Post 1, Department of Massachusetts, was formed at 
New Bedford. Two years later there were reported in this state 
seventy-five posts, with a membership of about six thousand two 
hundred. 

Danvers' soldiers, conservative as have always been its citizens, 
when they found that the new organization was not of political sig- 
nificance, came together in June, 1869, and formed Ward Post 90. 
For over thirty years the post has held together, sustaining its mem- 
bers, dispensing charity, and mindful always of the town's interests. 
During this time they have, with the assistance of the good citizens, 
dispensed about $25,000, bringing comfort and aid to their suffering 
comrades whose health had been impaired by the bloody conflict, 
weary marches, and deprivations encountered. 

Our Danvers Post we find, upon searching the records of individuals, 
to be composed of members of about one hundred different military 
organizations of the war, and about twenty ships of the navy, par- 
ticipating in nearly all of the prominent battles of the RebeUion. In 
this respect this post is a fair sample of every other post of the 
state. 

One cannot mention the G. A. R. without speaking of that most 
excellent and helpful auxiliary organization, the Woman's Relief 
Corps, whose devotion to the cause of charity and work has gone 
hand in hand with the G. A. R. 



The Banquet. 167 

What wonder that the women of 1861-1865 should be found in this 
work when we revert to the mothers of the Revolution who, when 
the husbands and sons went forth to Lexington, remained behind to 
care for the home and rear the children to be good and patriotic 
citizens. 

The soldiers who fought so bravely, and have been justly honored 
as heroes have, I fear, taken to themselves too much of the honor. 
While they were heroes, these women were heroines. From the days 
when our mothers, — God bless them, — our sweethearts, and wives 
met together to scrape lint, tear bandages, and make uniforms for 
the departing soldiers, to the present time, they have done their part 
heroically. 

Til at little sergeant whose eyes I closed in death under a syringa 
bush at Petersburg was a hero. The wife and mother, left at home in 
Massachusetts to mourn his untimely death and unknown grave, was a 
heroine. 

This is a day of memories. Some poet has described memories 
as the bridges by which we cross the rapid river of life to past experi- 
ences. Let us, then, on this day of memories, cross the rapid river of 
life, bearing in our minds the deeds of Danvers soldiers in the dark days 
of the Revolution, and of the soldiers of 1861-1865, whose memories 
we shall keep ever green. 

" For what he was, and what he dared, remember him to-day! " 
" Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
Lest we forget, lest we forget." 

The Toastmaster: 

But little has been said in regard to the women of Danvers, but 
knowing as we do the value of their services on all great moral ques- 
tions, this celebration would be found lacking in its best quality were 
they not given a place on this program. It is true that an old author- 
ity, whose name is still a power throughout the world, has said, " Let 
the women learn in silence, with all subjection," but could he have 
heard the eloquence of Danvers women he might have revised his 
statement. Mrs. I. E. Kenney, president, will speak for the Danvers 
Women's Association. 

Mrs. Kenney responded as follows: 

Upon anniversaries which mark the completion of long periods of 
municipal and social life it is natural to inquire where, if at all, we 



168 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

have made substantial progress ; into what new development human 
energy has forced its way. 

Progress for the most part is gradual, seldom revolutionary. There 
has been nothing revolutionary about the development of the intel- 
lectual independence of women, yet it has been reserved for the last 
third of the last century to witness the culmination of ideas, looking 
to the emancipation of women, which have spread and multiplied so 
rapidly and effectively that the development of the so-called new 
woman is to be associated with this epoch as one of its most distinctive 
and prominent features. 

At the centennial anniversary of Danvers it was an almost unheard 
of thing for a girl to aspire to anything more than a common school 
education, helped out among the wealthier classes by a few terms at 
a finishing school. There were a few girls' academies or young ladies' 
seminaries, but no institution which approached the level of colleges 
for young men. Since that time the idea of the woman's college has 
had the whole of its remarkable development. Wellesley and Smith, 
Vassar and Bryn Mawr, ask no odds in intellectual training of 
Harvard and Yale, Amherst or Dartmouth. 

In 1852 a woman doctor was, to say the least, a curiosity; now she 
is familiar and welcome and successful, and in our cities women lawyers 
are not uncommon. In a thousand and one ways girls and women 
have opened up avenues of self-support and are honorably independ- 
ent, where a generation ago they would have been an additional 
burden to some overtaxed male bread-winner. 

Necessarily some timeworn traditions as to formalities and pro- 
prieties have been shattered, and the shackles of senseless restriction 
have been forever broken, but with the broader freedom and the newer 
life there has been no depreciation of womanhood, but rather an 
elevation of her ideals. 

Whether as a cause or an outgrowth of the broadening, uplifting 
movement of womanhood, the woman's club is at least one of its 
most obvious features. It has served as the basis of many a good- 
natured joke, but taken all in all the woman's club has had an honest 
work to do and has done it well. 

So much, speaking broadly. As for this town, the work of the 
Danvers Women's Association has been an open book now for twenty 
years, and its members feel an honest pride in the positive good which 
it has accomplished in this community. Before its organization 
women saw little and knew little of each other except within their own 
limited and narrow circles, bounded for the most part by the limits 



The Banquet. 169 

of their respective church sewing circles. In the club, women found 
a broader field of acquaintance and friendship ; breaches were broken 
in old social division walls until long ago these walls have disappeared 
and been forgotten ; broader and more liberal views of home life and 
community life have come in, and this result, though not to be traced 
through distinct acts, or recorded votes, is not the less positive and 
substantial, and perhaps the best fruit of the club's existence; but 
the aim of the club from its beginning has been to make its mem- 
bers better women through the incitement of intellectual and social 
culture and higher ideals. 

It has held fortnightly meetings each season, three hundred and 
twenty in all, at which a lecture or talk for discussion has been the 
principal feature. 

Gifted and distinguished men and women have given to the mem- 
bers the benefits of their studies and experience in literature, art, and 
science, work and education, philanthropy, topics of the times, and 
music. 

Outside of its routine career, the Association has educated a colored 
girl at Hampton, Va., and attempted to exert its influence for good 
in the elevation of the town schools, in the maintenance of a kinder- 
garten, in offering prizes to pupils of the Holten High School for the 
best English essays, in taking the initiative towards establishing a 
Home for the Aged, in instituting among children the beneficial plan 
of the so-called Stamp Savings Society, and in cooperating with other 
organizations for the physical improvement of the town. 

Twenty years of life for an organization which has no secret binding 
tie is rather extraordinary, — but few similar clubs within the com- 
monwealth are older than ours, — but there is no apparent decrease 
of interest. 

The limit of membership has been successively increased from 100 
until it has reached 200, and 20 complimentary members, and upon 
the ever-present waiting list there are now the number of 143 appli- 
cants. 

With even this measure of success as to past achievements apd 
present enthusiasm, it may not be rash to predict that the Danvers 
Women's Association will, fifty years from now, be a surviving element 
of the town's progress; but whether this be so or no, the Danvers 
Women's Association of to-day modestly bespeaks for itself this mead 
of praise from the men of Danvers: 

That it is not unworthy at this celebration of a representative 
among the honored institutions of our beloved town. 



170 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

As a matter of record the names of the charter members 
who are at present members here follow : 

Charter Members, 1882. 

Andrews, Mrs. Mary S. Nichols, Mrs. Elizabeth P. 

BoMER, Miss Mary D, Nichols, Miss Mary Ward 

Clapp, Mrs. Addie M. Putnam, Miss Fidelia A. 

Couch, Mrs. H. Elizabeth Putnam, Mrs. Madeline L. 

FiSKE, Mrs. Sarah E. Sawyer, Mrs. Ellen B. 

Howe, Mrs. Josephine E. Spofford, Mrs. Ellen A. 

Keith, Mrs. Hattie R. Trask, Mrs. Dora W. 

Kelley, Mrs. Mary J. Trask, Mrs. Sarah S. J. 

Kenney, Mrs. Isadora E. Tufts, Mrs. Lizzie 

Locke, Mrs. Sarah J. Wentworth, Mrs. H. L. 

Masury, Mrs. Evelyn Fellows Weston, Mrs. Louise P. 

Newhall, Mrs. Annie G. White, Mrs. Ariadne J. 
Whipple, Mrs. Cornelia E. 

The principal officers have been as follows : 
Presidents. 

Wentworth, Mrs. H. L 1882-89 

Spofford, Mrs. Ellen A 1889-91 

Masury, Mrs. Evelyn F 1891-96 

Hunt, Miss Sarah E 1896-99 

Nichols, Miss Mary Ward 1899-1902 

Kenney, Mrs. Isadora E 1902- 

Secretaries. 
Putnam, Miss Eliza O. Nichols, Miss Mary Ward 

HoRSWELi-, Miss Jennie Kenney, Mrs. Isadora E. 

Putnam, Miss Ellen M. Hood, Mrs. Elizabeth G. 

Everett, Mrs. Lucy A. 

Corresponding Secretaries. 
Hood, Mrs. Lizzie F. Tapley, Miss Isabel B. 

Stimpson, Mrs. Cora B. Hood, Mrs. Elizabeth G. 

Treasurers. 
BuRRiNGTON, Mrs. V. A. Perry, Mrs. Martha Putnam 

Tapley, Miss Isabel B. Porter, Mrs. Ella J. 

Newhali/, Miss Alice H. 



The Banquet. 171 

The Toastmaster: 

Education is a debt we owe to the coming generations. The life 
of our nation depends upon its application. Mr. A. P. Learoyd, secre- 
tary, will tell us how well the Danvers School Committee is trying to 
meet the situation. 

Mr. Learoyd told of the part he took as a boy in the 
celebration of fifty years ago, and the reception to George 
Peabody, some years later. 

The Toastmaster : 

The need of a higher education is growing more apparent as the 
years go by. Some of the reasons will now be given by Hon. J. Frank 
Porter. 

Mr. Porter responded as follows : 

To look over this large audience into the faces of so many that were 
familiar to me in my boyhood days, many of whom were schoolmates ; 
to listen to the interesting historical address in Peabody Institute this 
morning by one whom I am proud to claim as classmate; and now 
to listen to the remarks this afternoon, is more than of common in- 
terest to one who was born in this old historic town, has lived for over 
fifty consecutive years within her borders, and for a greater part of that 
time has been identified with her interests. 

I can look back over the last half century as years of slow but 
steady progress. It seems only a short time ago to me that we were 
riding in the only means of conveyance to our neighboring city, the 
old lumbering stage coach, lighting our houses with tallow candles 
and oil lamps, and drinking water from the old well, too often con- 
taminated with the seeds of disease. Now, all these things are 
changed, and the changes have been so gradual that we sometimes fail 
to appreciate their benefits. 

Our convenient trolley car, our electric lights, our pure running 
water, our excellent schools, modern roads, free mail service, telegraph 
and telephones, with all the improvements of modern civilization, 
help to lighten life's burdens. The past is behind us, and the duty of 
the present is not to dwell upon what has gone before, but to look for- 
ward to the future with hopefulness, with courage, and with deter- 
mination. 



172 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

The young of to-day will chronicle the events that are now trans- 
piring and which are to take place during the coming half century. 
What our town will be fifty years hence depends wholly upon the 
kind of young men and young women we are sending forth from our 
homes. 

If I were asked what is the one important and chief thing that would 
tend to promote the future prosperity and welfare of Danvers in the 
years to come, either intellectually, morally, or socially, I should say 
it would be our loyal devotion to intelligence, to our schools, to edu- 
cation. Fifty years ago, even thirty years ago, the high schools were 
further from the reach of the average child than the colleges are to- 
day. This fact comes to us more forcibly during this commencement 
season, when so many students from all over the land are now 
beginning the actual duties of life, or climbing still higher in other 
schools of learning. 

That was a step in the right direction when we added to our high 
school the college preparatory and the commercial course, which is 
already redounding to the honor of our town in the educated young 
men and young women now taking upon themselves the important 
duties of citizenship. " Education a debt due from present to future 
generations " means to us to-day the best education, which is the best 
legacy parents can bestow upon children. 

We must remember that the public end of education is not alone 
to make accountants, or professional men, or specialists of any kind, 
but enlightened, patriotic, public-spirited fellow-citizens. Our in- 
telligence is the divine spark within us, and the more carefully we 
cherish it and fan it into flame, the more certainly will the community 
in which we live be enveloped in celestial light, and human life fulfill 
its divine purpose. 

The Toastmaster : 

Representative Charles H. Preston, of Danvers, will tell us of the 
importance of marking historical places in our town. 

Mr. Preston responded as follows: 

An occasion like this, the celebration of our one hundred and fiftieth 
anniversary, naturally leads us to consider historical events connected 
with our town, and the men who have been prominent in its affairs. 
Danvers has never been backward in any crisis, but has done her full 
share in time of necessity. When the alarm sounded on the 19th of 



The Banquet. 173 

April, 1775, companies of men hurried to Lexington and took part in 
the contest of that day, and seven men of Danvers were among the 
slain. The same patriotism was shown in the long contest of 1861- 
1865, and in the war with Spain. 

The town has also had men prominent in civil affairs in the early 
days and in more recent years. From time to time memorials have 
been erected to commemorate events in our history or to mark his- 
toric spots. There is the Lexington monument in Peabody; the 
monument in front of this building to the memory of the soldiers of 
the Civil War ; the bowlder with a suitable inscription on the old train- 
ing field at the Centre; the monument near the site of the home of 
Col. Israel Hutchinson, a brave officer of the Revolution, and to whose 
house the dead from Lexington were brought ; the tablet at the birth- 
place of Gen. Israel Putnam, and other similar memorials. These 
have, in some cases, been erected by the town; in others, partly or 
wholly by private subscription or by societies. 

Much more of this nature remains to be done. The location of some 
historic sites is already lost, as that of the birthplace of Judge Samuel 
Holten, which I think is not exactly known. His later home, how- 
ever, is well preserved, and is one of the places that should be marked. 
Judge Samuel Putnam was one of the ablest men our town has pro- 
duced. He was living at the time of the celebration, fifty years ago, 
but few remain who remember him. His house is one that I think 
ought to have some suitable designation. The birthplace of Gen. 
Moses Porter is another place of interest that should not longer remain 
unmarked. Many other places doubtless occur to you. I mention 
these few only to show that many historic spots are not marked 
and are unknown to the average citizen. 

It seems to me it is our duty as a town to do more by appropriation 
and otherwise to encourage this work. The state is spending large 
sums of money for similar purposes. The rolls of Revolutionary 
soldiers are being printed in a work of many volumes. This year 
$25,000 has been appropriated to erect a memorial at Provincetown 
in commemoration of the compact signed by the Pilgrims in Province- 
town Harbor, provided a like amount is raised by private subscription. 

Perhaps the most important act passed by the legislature in recent 
years of an historical nature is one which has recently become a law, 
appropriating not more than $15,000 a year to purchase five hundred 
copies of the births, marriages, and deaths in any town where these may 
be published, these copies to be distributed one to each public library 
in the state. This will greatly aid the printing of these old records, 



174 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

and will be a means of preserving them and bringing them within the 
reach of every one. It will be of great educational value and wUl 
quicken an interest in historical matters. 

I wish on this anniversary day to bring this subject to the attention 
of the citizens. I think one or more places should be marked every 
year. It will educate the children and make them honor their town. 
I leave it for your serious consideration. 

The Toastmaster: 

I will now ask Mr. William M. Currier to tell us his impressions of 
Danvers, past and present. 

Mr. Currier responded as follows: 

No more interesting theme or pleasanter task could be assigned 
me on this memorable occasion than the recalling of my impressions 
of the business men whom I have known by reputation, and with 
whom I have been closely identified since I made Danvers the home 
of my adoption in the spring of 1869. 

When I came here I was a fatherless boy, observing, impressionable, 
and ever the recipient of kindnesses which awakened the noblest 
impulses; the object of almost parental love and sympathy and en- 
couragement in my modest yet hazardous business undertaking. 
I may be excused because of the personal reference which I note and 
justify in my endeavor to show that I should be qualified to empha- 
size the sentiment which kindles my heart with gratitude, though I 
am conscious of enforced limitations which compel me to speak in a 
rambling and perhaps superficial manner. 

Out of the deep, rich shades of the past, like an interesting pano- 
rama embellished with the most delicate touch of an artist whose 
characters stand and speak with the force of the living, passing 
before my vision are the good men and women who recounted to me 
their aspirations, successes, and defeats, and which in time must 
come to be historical traditions of the noble, philanthropic spirit that 
influenced their lives, and which I was to see most generously exem- 
plified in my social and business intercourse with them. 

You who have enjoyed the stimulating forces which surroimded 
what has been termed " the cradle of public sentiment," the old- 
time country grocery, can realize the opportunity afforded the speaker 
to study men and measures and to become affiliated with men who 
have done much to endear themselves to our community. It was in 



The Banquet. 175 

this environment, around the fire of the old grocery store, that I first 
felt the glow and warnith of hospitality, when representatives from 
near and remote sections of the town, boiling with enthusiastic pride 
and honorable rivalry, endeavored to correct abuses or inaugurate 
reforms. Here flights of oratory, with the heat radiating force of 
120 degrees in the shade, evidenced the most patriotic and loyal senti- 
ments which were to be educational for young manhood and helpful 
to good citizenship. 

From this mental picture turn to one of even greater import, where, 
midst the busy hum of our factories, were employed the concentrated 
energies and the inventive genius of our commimity, cooperating with 
the bold, enterprising spirit which placed their products in far-off 
markets and won a name for Danvers' brogans that became synony- 
mous with " old honesty." These men won distinction and became 
examples of the truth that substantial growth is from within ; that char- 
acter is power ; that the accumulation of wealth at the cost of principle, 
and the substitution of shoddy for the real, or the jeopardizing of 
humanity for material gain was not true prosperity or progress. With 
such standards of integrity and ideals these business generals estab- 
lished business codes worthy of emulation. These men, " touched by 
the silver hand of time," left the impress of their sincerity and sterling 
virtues on those who enjoyed their confidence. With these men — 
the manufacturers, grocers, and prominent citizens — was born the 
first great temperance reform work in this community, developing a 
great tidal wave, threatening and involving our town in an intense 
and bitter warfare. Feuds were engendered, differences arose which 
can only be harmonized in eternity. The issue was made ; there was 
but one result, the grog shop was to be eliminated and the grocery to 
be elevated, and the old corner temperance store became an historical 
landmark, successfully competing with those who persisted in the 
" evil way," and controverting the adage of Shakespeare, " Born a 
man, but died a grocer." 

Again the flashlight of analysis reveals a type of character of which 
you may well feel proud. The shot that electrified the world in 1861 
was a momentous one for Danvers. Our manufacturers were heavily 
involved in the South; large commitments had been made, and re- 
mittances were depended on for their great financial obligations. 
With trembling hearts and ashen faces they sought a restless couch. 
A nightmare of reality, bankruptcy, and dishonor confronted them; 
through the path of wounded pride and dishonor it paved the road 
to glory and honor. If stripped of the accumulation of years they 



176 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

could not be robbed of their unwavering integrity. Money gone, grit left, 
it was for us to learn the force of Franklin's maxim, " To be stripped 
of one's resources is in itself a fortune." These men, fearless and 
undaunted, with untiring industry and deprivation, in many instances 
laid the foundation again for success, rose from the ashes of adversity, 
paid in full their financial obligations, and won the admiration of 
the world. 

The over-arching majestic elms bow silently and reverently where 
their feet once trod, and the echo of their voices will be heard no 
more. 

At your firesides I have listened with pleasure to the recital of tra- 
ditions, and witnessed the beneficent influences of example and pre- 
cept of the young mothers holding up before our vision the highest 
ideals, and heard the heart-prayer that the son should equip himself 
with the essentials which should make for purity of character and 
satisfy a high ambition. From the home life have gone out the aspir- 
ing boys who have entered the business arena and become a som-ce of 
pride and with still greater possibilities of achievement. As an illus- 
tration of the beneficent influence of a mother's discipline and 
inherited power, one of our brilliant young men entered the office of 
one of our merchants and asked him if he recalled a promise made 
when the latter took grocery orders in his home, sixteen years before, 
remarking that he had kept his childhood pledge and earned his 
promised reward. 

Wherever duty called, the business man has been an evident helpful 
force. If absorbed with his engrossing cares, he has been ready 
to counsel and materially assist and encourage worthy, ambitious 
men. His voice has ever been among the first to plead for a broad, 
practical education and the raising of the standard of our schools. 
Our religious organizations have felt his support and plea for 
humanity ; our fraternal organizations have recognized his efforts to 
promote the spirit of universal brotherhood. Our beautiful town, 
with all of its physical, picturesque charms, with the changing seasons 
brings its tribute of recognition for his inestimable and far-reaching 
policy of improvement. And while history may not individually 
record their works, nor marble tablet chronicle their deeds, there has 
gone out something sacrificial, perhaps, far greater and more potential 
in the inspiring force and influence of such lives upon the hearts of 
humanity. And it is no extravagant praise to borrow and apply the 
eulogistic sentiments expressed at the erection of a monument to one 
of national fame: " Build it to the skies, you cannot outreach the 



The Banquet. 177 

loftiness of his principles; found it upon the massive eternal rocks, 
you cannot make it more enduring than his fame ; construct it of the 
purest Parian marble, you cannot make it purer than his life." 

The Toastmaster: 

Young men, natives of Danvers, who have made homes elsewhere. 
There is no man who can speak more intelligently on this question than 
Mr. John E. Maguire, of Haverhill, whom we are always glad to hear. 

Mr. Maguire responded as follows: 

Mr. Chairman: The celebration of this anniversary with its attend- 
ant exercises appeals to every loyal son of old Danvers, and his heart 
is filled with a justifiable pride as her records for the past one hundred 
and fifty years pass rapidly before his mind. And to none of her 
people do they appeal with greater force than to those of her exiled 
sons who have been led by varying circumstances beyond the hmits 
of their native town. 

As one of such it is my pleasure to return to-day and be once more, 
as of old, a Danvers boy; with you to rejoice at the completion of 
these one hundred and fifty years of our town's existence ; with you 
to point with pride to her record during that period ; to renew the ac- 
quaintances and friendships of former days; to recall the happy days 
of long ago, and live o'er again, if for but a brief period, the pleasures 
here enjoyed with friends whose hand I may grasp, and think of those 
whose forms I do not see, but whose memory I cherish as a priceless 
treasure. 

The years are passing rapidly on, each separating us still further 
from those early events in our life among you. We go away, while 
others come to take our places; we are soon forgotten, but memory 
lingers, and we may well repeat those touching lines, 

" Strange to me now are the forms I meet 

When I visit the dear old town. 
But the native air is pure and sweet. 
And the trees that o'ershadow each well-known street 

As they balance up and down 
Are singing the beautiful song, 
Are singing and whispering still, 
A boy's will is the wind's will. 
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." 



178 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

The thoughts of youth are indeed " long, long thoughts "; but as 
one whose place of birth was within the limits of one of her beautiful 
villages, whose boyhood and early manhood days were spent among 
her people, and as one who has enjoyed the benefits of her educational 
and other beneficial institutions, it is my privilege to-day to publicly 
acknowledge my great obligation to the dear old town ; to speak of 
her, from personal knowledge, with a heart overflowing with gratitude, 
and with the fondest of memories for her institutions and her 
people. 

One's removal from among his accustomed scenes enables him to 
better view them. Just as the artist, on the completion of his master- 
piece, retires at a distance to look upon the product of his genius in 
order that he may the better criticise it and pass upon its merit, so 
does it fall to the lot of him who has been removed from the place he 
once called home, to be better able to appreciate the worth of that 
former home. 

And I, a son of old Danvers, as loyal to her to-day as when living 
within her borders, or as any of those who now remain with her, desire 
to offer my pledge of gratitude and express my regard for the dear old 
town. Criticise it if you will as being biased, say that it is influenced 
by personal ties, by tender associations, and fond memories, never- 
theless, this is my feeling concerning our good old town.. 

As the earth revolves daily upon its axis, that beautiful source of 
life, the sim, looks down upon the many races of man with greater or 
less opportunities for advancement and welfare ; upon those inhabiting 
the great deserts of the East, the fertile plains of our own country, 
the isolated districts and thickly peopled cities, the torrid sections of 
the equator, and the frigid regions of the Arctic, each with some 
special advantage, yet none without some disadvantage ; but no spot 
on which he sheds his rays of light is more pleasing to my eyes than 
this beautiful town of fertile plains, boi'dered by sightly hills, with 
pretty villages and homes of a happy and contented people. 

A people famous for their industry, their loyalty to their God and 
country, devoted to education and advancement; the home of the 
philanthropist, the soldier, the statesman, the educator, the merchant, 
and thousands of industrious toilers, all of whom have been proud to 
call her by the loving name of home. 

God bless our old town. May she continue in the pathway where 
she so long has trod, and be, as she was designed by the Father, the 
ideal New England town, as long as the sun shall rise on Folly Hill 
and set behind yon western hill-tops at fall of night. 



The Banquet. 179 

The Toastmaster: 

The energy of the early settlers of Danversport has always been a 
source of interest to our citizens. John W. Porter has consented to 
tell us about them. 

Mr. Porter responded as follows : 

Danversport (formerly Skelton's Neck, Porter's Neck, the Neck, 
and the New Mills) can boast of the most enterprising men in the 
United States; among them figure prominently the Hutchinsons, 
Cheevers, Blacks, Fowlers, Putnams, Porters, Endicotts, Grays, 
Kineses, Webbs, Hunts, Andrews, Chaplins, Dennetts, Eveletts, 
Francises, Goulds, Hoods, Kenneys, Merrills, Oakes, Pages, Ushers, 
Whitings, Woodmans, Warrens, Rosses, and Reeds. 

On May 12, 1755, the inhabitants of the northern part of Danvers, 
together with residents of Wenham, Beverly, Topsfield, Middleton, 
and Boxford, petitioned the Court of General Sessions for the County 
of Essex to lay out a highwaj^ from John Porter's Tavern (the present 
old Berry Tavern) to Crane River (where Lummus Mill now stands), 
for the purpose of making the grist mill at that point more accessible. 
July following the petition was granted. 

No sooner had this new road been obtained than a petition from, 
the present Centre and Tapleyville districts, in March, 1756, that this 
new way be discontinued and that another road from their section of 
the town be laid out for their accommodation, as thej^ claimed that 
a greater number of the inhabitants of the town would be accom- 
modated. This was probably true, as the settlement was at that time 
principally in the western part of the town ; but the petition was not 
gi-anted. 

In 1760 several individuals owning land between Crane River 
Bridge and Waters River petitioned the selectmen to lay out a 
private way between the two, which was granted upon the statement 
that said individuals owned land on the Salem side of Waters River 
and desired a way to it. These men went still further and erected a 
rude bridge over Waters River, which, when the inhabitants of other 
parts of Danvers were informed of it, created great indignation, and it 
was voted in town meeting to forbid the completion of the bridge and 
make complaint to the Great and General Court. This was in Sep- 
tember of 1760, and in the following month the Neck people threw off 
the mask, threw down the gauntlet, and came out with a petition to the 
Court of General Sessions for a county highway from Widow Porter's 



180 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Tavern to the North Bridge, Salem. This petition was opposed by 
the town of Danvers without avail. The court granted the same, 
May, 1761, and a bridge was built across Waters River, which was 
destroyed by a great storm in 1765, when the town expended con- 
siderable money to rebuild it, which called forth, in 1766, a memorial 
from the town to the General Court for relief, which appeal was of 
no avail, as that body simply referred them to the Court of Sessions, 
where the case was dismissed. 

In 1767, however, the original petition to the General Court was 
revived, and a committee appointed to come to Danvers to settle the 
trouble. They considered it fairly, recommended that the town pay 
one-fourth part, the remainder to be borne by the proprietors of the 
land and the towns of Topsfield, Wenham, and Marblehead. This 
was defeated in the House of Representatives and affairs did not 
assume an especially peaceful aspect. 

After other petitions to the General Court for help, which were not 
successful, the courageous residents of the " Neck " took upon them- 
selves that which the province, the county, and the towns in turn 
refused to do, namely, the maintenance of the highway and bridges 
from Porter's Tavern to the North Bridge, Salem. The neck of land 
was duly incorporated as a separate district by an act of the General 
Court in 1772, the residents being exempt from taxation in the town 
of Danvers for any other highways, and the town being relieved of the 
new road. 

For seventy years this district, later New Mills, and still later 
Danversport, continued to maintain the highways, hold meetings, 
elect officers, etc., until, with the growth of the town in other sections, 
the highway to Salem became of common necessity to all the uihabi- 
tants. In 1840 the act of incorporation was repealed, and the year 
following the business of the " Neck " was closed up. 

The courage, pluck, and enterprise of Danversport people can be 
realized when their acts are placed beside the acts of the town of 
Marblehead and the cities of Beverly and Salem, as may be illustrated 
by the following: 

At the time the above bridges were built they were as expensive 
as the bridge across Forest River, which joins Salem to Marblehead, 
and yet the rich town of Marblehead and the wealthy city of Salem 
received help from the county to build said bridge ; and also the city 
of Beverly and the city of Salem could not afford to build the draw 
on Beverly bridge, and petitioned the legislature for an act to author- 
ize the county to build it, which petition was granted. 



The Banquet. 181 

The Toastmaster : 

Early residents of Putnamville and their characteristics, by a native, 
Mr. WiUiam E. Putnam, of Boston. 

Mr. Putnam responded as follows: 

It was my good fortune to have been born in this grand old town 
of Danvers, sixty-four years ago, and I count myself particularly 
fortunate that this to me very interesting event occurred in that 
patriotic precinct then called Blind Hole, now known as Putnam- 
ville, and made immortal by the Danvers Historical Society. At 
that time this locality was the most important business portion of 
the town. I distinctly remember there seven shoe factories, a tannery, 
and a box factory. These shoe and leather factories were conducted 
by men in excellent credit and very high standing in the commercial 
world. One in particular, who died about fifty years ago, left about 
one quarter of a million dollars, a sum equal, all things considered, to 
about $1,000,000 to-day, and yet the amount of his business for a 
year was less than the production of one week in many large factories 
to-day. Land there was then worth about five times to-day's prices. 

As I remember the people of those daj^s, they were very progressive 
and, it seems to me, more interested in important affairs affecting their 
town and country than are we, their successors, to-day. They had 
more time to think, and read the few books they had to some purpose, 
and while they lacked many things we have come to consider as 
necessities, they had less nervous prostration and very little Anglo- 
mania. We are inclined to smile at the bitterness of our Irish fellow- 
citizens towards England, but I assure j'ou it is no more intense than 
that existing in this very town among the old American families fifty 
to sixty years ago. Men were then living who had suffered from 
English press gangs and the horrors of Dartmoor and other English 
prisons. One of my first ambitions as a child was to grow big enough 
to kill an Englishman, and even as late as the War of the Rebellion, 
when the Mason and Slidell affair seemed sure to involve us in war 
with Great Britain, an old great-uncle said to me: " William, the day 
I have looked forward to all my life has arrived. We are to have a 
war with England, and although I am seventy years old I mean to go 
to this war myself." 

Although Danvers stood relatively ver}' high in those days in the 
manufacture of boots and shoes, producing honest goods, the state of 
the art was primitive, many of the manufacturers having graduated 



182 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

from the farm. The lasts used were utterly unlike the human foot, 
in fact, more nearly resembled in form the foot of a horse elongated, 
and elderly people will remember that all new shoes had to be " broken 
in," which meant that the whole form had to be changed, to the in- 
tense agony of the wearer, before it approximated to the lines of the 
human foot. The hours of labor were very long. A little sketch of 
one day's work of a boy just commencing the business may give some 
idea. He rises at 5 o'clock a.m., curries, feeds, and waters two horses, 
takes breakfast, and is at work in the factory at 7. If it be haying 
time, and a thunder storm threatens, all the shop's crew turn out to 
save the newly-dried hay, and he takes a hand at the rake ; then, with 
an hour's nooning and about one half hour for supper, he works until 
sunset and in the winter until 8 o'clock p.m. Then, as bookkeeping 
is considered rather in the light of a luxury, he works on the books 
after hours until 9 or 10 ; then to bed, unless, fond of reading, he steals 
an hour to read Abbot's romance called " The History of Napoleon." 
No vacation to employees, and the schools hold all-day session on 
Christmas. This, no doubt, seems hard Hues and long hours to the 
modern Crispin, but it was not so hard as it appears. The gait was 
not so rapid, nor the tension so great as now. They were not obliged 
to keep pace with machinery, and it was no uncommon sight to see one 
cutter reading aloud in working hours from the morning paper the 
latest news to his fellows, this to be followed by a general discussion 
in which the boss might join. In district No. 3, now without a school, 
was a large and flourishing school, and at one time over half the pupils 
bore one surname. In fact, the ladies of the vicinity, as a matter of 
necessity, were designated by their husbands' Christian names, with 
usually an affectionate prefix, as Aunt Moses, Aunt Sam, Aunt Eben, 
Aunt Aaron, while the husbands were referred to by the Christian name 
in the same affectionate manner. There was no professional barber 
in town, no dentist. Those who could not indulge in the expense 
of a regular physician to extract the ailing tooth employed a substan- 
tial teamster at the Port, whose hands were somewhat larger than 
the average child's mouth, but whose terms were very reasonable. I 
remember well when there was not a single sewing machine in town, 
and when even the leather uppers to boots and shoes were sewn by 
hand and the work done largely by bright and intelligent women ; yet 
I have not yet accustomed myself to the idea that I am an old man. 
Our predecessors had limited opportunities, but made the highest 
use of them. Fellow-citizens, we have great privileges that our an- 
cestors never dreamed of. Can we better commemorate this one 



The Banquet 183 

hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our existence as a town than by 
seriously asking the question whether we are avaihng ourselves of 
these opportmiities with the same earnest, conscientious ardor that 
characterized their lives? 

The Toastmaster: 

One of the most distinguished citizens in the history of Danvers 
was Judge Holten. We have with us to-day a son of Danvers who 
has made a study of the life of Judge Holten, and one who, as sec- 
retary of the committee, has done much to make this celebration a 
success. I introduce to you William B. Sullivan, Esq. 

Mr. Sullivan responded as follows : 

Samuel Holten, son of Samuel and Hannah Holten, was born in 
Danvers, near Prince and Garden streets, in a house called Holten's 
Hotel, June 9, 1738. He studied medicine with Dr. Jonathan Prince, 
and soon after being qualified to practice moved to Gloucester, where 
he lived a short while, when he returned to Danvers. The first men- 
tion of him in our Danvers Records is in Volume I, page 320, May 16, 
1764: "Voted, not to allow Dr. Samuel Holten seven pounds one shil- 
ling, and four pence for attendance to Sarah Gloyd. Then voted that 
the selectmen take the doctor's account into consideration and allow 
him what they think right, notwithstanding the above vote." In 
the same volume, under date of January 10, 1765, this subject is again 
referred to. " In observance of a vote of the inhabitants of the town 
of Danvers at the meeting May 16, 1764, where the town voted [above 
vote quoted], we have met and taken the doctor's amount into 
consideration, and are of the opinion that the doctor ought to have 
forty shillings more than what the overseers of the poor allowed him 
to balance his account in full for attendance and medicine to Sarah 
Gloyd." 

In Volume II, page 147, September 20, 1768, it was " voted unani- 
mously that Samuel Holten, Jr., be desired to join a committee of 
the town of Boston and such others as the several towns in this prov- 
ince shall see fit to send to a convention to be held at Faneuil Hall in 
Boston, on the 22d of September, instant, at ten of the clock in the 
forenoon," etc. 

He was a member of the legislature previous to the Revolution (see, 
Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Volume V, 
page 370, February 24, 1774). He was a member of the convention 
of Essex County held at Ipswich on September 6-7, 1774, composed 



184 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

of delegates from every town in the county. This convention passed 
a resolution, the first paragraph of which contains the following lines: 
" That the act of parliament entitled 'An Act for the Better Regulat- 
ing the Government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in New 
England, 'being a most dangerous infraction of our constitutional and 
charter rights, and tending to a total subversion of the government 
of the province and destruction of our liberties, and having been with 
uncommon zeal, with arbitrary exertion, and military violence at- 
tempted to be carried into execution, and this zeal, these exertions, 
and this violence still continuing; from the sacred and inviolable at- 
tachment which we owe to those rights which are essential to and 
distinguish us as Englishmen and free men, and from a tender con- 
cern for the peace of this country, we are bound to pursue all reason- 
able measures by which any attempts to enforce immediate obedience 
to that act may be defeated." (Journals of each Provincial Congress 
of Massachusetts, page 615.) Jeremiah Lee, Dr. Samuel Holten, and 
Elbridge Gerry were appointed a committee to present these resolutions 
to William Brown, of Boston, who was then a counselor to his majesty's 
province of Massachusetts Bay. 

In the Danvers Records, Volume II, page 426, the following is to be 
found: " At a town meeting held in the North meetinghouse, twenty- 
seventh day of September, a.d. 1774, at 3 p.m., the question was put 
to see if they would send two persons to represent them in the Great 
and General Court. Passed in the negative. Voted to choose one 
person to represent them in the Great and General Court. Voted that 
one quarter of an hour should be given for the electors to prepare and 
bring in their votes. The said electors brought in their votes to the 
number of 79. The selectmen counted and sorted the votes and it 
appeared that Samuel Holten was chosen by having 78 of the above 
votes " 

The record of this meeting continues as follows: " Voted that the 
following instruction to our representative: 

" To Dr. Samuel Holten: 

" Sir, — As we have now chosen you to represent us in the Great 
and General Court to be holden in Salem on Wednesday, the 5th day 
of October next ensuing, we do hereby instruct you that in all your 
doings as a member of the House of Representatives you adhere 
firmly to the charter of this province granted by their majesties King 
William and Queen Mary, and that you do no act which can possibly 
be construed into an acknowledgment of the act of the British Parlia- 



The Banquet. 185 

ment for altering the government of Massachusetts Bay, more espe- 
cially that you acknowledge the honorable Board of Counsellors 
elected by the General Court at their session in May last as the only 
rightful and constitutional council of this province, and as we have 
reason to believe that a conscientious discharge of your duty will 
produce your dissolution as a House of Representatives, we do 
hereby empower and instruct you to join with the members who may 
be sent from this and the neighboring town in the province, and to 
meet with them, at a time to be agreed on, in a General Provincial 
Congress, to act upon such matters as may come before you in such 
manner as may appear to be most inducive to the true interests of 
the town and province and most likely to preserve the liberties of all 
America." 

Then the meeting was dissolved. 

Samuel Holten, Jr., Clerk. 

On the 1st of September, 1774, his Excellency Thomas Gage, 
governor of Massachusetts Bay, sent out precepts to the several towns 
and districts of the province, commanding the inhabitants to return 
representatives to the Great and General Court ordered to be con- 
vened at Salem on the fifth day of October next. Alarmed by the 
preparations for resisting usurpation of charter rights, by the bold 
spirit of the county resolves, and the patriotic instruction of the people 
to their delegates, it was determined by the Royal Council to counter- 
mand the meeting of the Assembly and to postpone its session. On 
September 28, 1774, Governor Gage issued a proclamation announcing 
his views of the inexpediency of meeting at the time appointed, and 
discharged the members from attendance and declarmg his intention 
not to be present at Salem. Notwithstanding the executive pro- 
hibition, ninety of the representatives elected, in pursuance of the 
writs for calling the General Assembly, met at Salem on Wednesday, 
October 5, 1774, and they resolved that by the royal charter the 
governor was expressly obliged to conv-enc the Great and General Court, 
but he had no authority to adjourn or prorogue it until after said court 
has first met and convened. This was the first meeting of the First 
Provincial Congress. There were three sessions in all of this con- 
gress which took charge and had entire authority, so far as the province 
of Massachusetts was concerned, in the Revolution. It met at Con- 
cord, Cambridge, and in Water town at different periods from October 
7, 1774, to July 19, 1775. Samuel Holten represented Danvers in 
each session of this congress. He held many important positions 



186 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

in this body and was elected on the Committee of Safety, May 18, 
and July 13, 1775 (see pages 238 and 498, Journals of each Provincial 
Congress of Massachusetts). In the archives of the commonwealth, 
in the records of the Revolutionary soldiers, I find that Samuel Holten 
was a first major in the First Essex County Regiment, commanded by 
Lieut.-Col. John Mansfield; service two days, on alarm April 19, 1775. 

In Volume III, page 19, of the Danvers Records, the following may 
be found: " August 7. At a legal meeting of the freeholders of the 
town of Danvers to vote for representatives to the General Assembly 
(at the North meetinghouse in said town), Capt. Samuel Epes had 
fourteen votes and was duly elected to represent the town. N. B. — 
The above choice was in consequence of Dr. Samuel Holten being 
chosen one of the honorable council for this colony." 

In the Danvers Records, Volume III, page 119, July 5, 1779, the 
town of Danvers " voted to send four delegates to represent the town 
in the convention at Cambridge, for the sole purpose of forming a new 
constitution, on the first day of September next; voted to choose them 
by written votes, and the selectmen were appointed to count and 
sort the votes, and the number of voters were twenty-four, and it 
appeared that the Hon. Samuel Holten, Amos Putnam, Esq., Col. 
Israel Hutchinson, and Capt. William Shillaber were chosen for said 
delegates." 

Holten was a delegate to the Congress which was called at York- 
town to frame the Confederation; and in the "Journals of Congress," 
Volume I, page 369, Tuesday, June 23, 1778, Mr. Holten appears to 
have cast his first vote on the Confederation with Hancock, Samuel 
Adams, Gerry, Dana, and Lovell, as his fellow-delegates from Massa- 
chusetts Bay, And in the Journals of Congress, Volume I, page 463, 
while Congress was sitting in Philadelphia, on the ninth day of July, 
1778, the Articles of Confederation were signed by John Hancock, 
Samuel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Francis Dana, James Lovell, and 
Samuel Holten on the part and behalf of the state of Massachusetts 
Bay. This document was second only in importance to the Declara- 
tion. 

He was elected as a delegate to Congress in 1778, and the following 
are copies of receipts found in his papers : 

May 15, 1778. 
Received of Samuel Holten, Esq., the sum of four pounds, in full, 
for a pair of pistols for his intended journey to the southward. 

Joseph Putnam. 



The Banquet. 187 

Danvers, May 18, 1778. 
Received of Samuel Holten, Esq., the sum of six pounds two shil- 
lings, being for tailoring done for him for his intended journey to the 
southward. 

Philip Noursb. 

He served at different periods in Congress from 1778 to 1795. At 
this time the states sent as many delegates as they desired, as the 
delegates from each state voted as a unit. Holten's name is to be 
found running through the Journals of Congress for these years as 
voting for his state on nearly every measure. 

In a letter dated Philadelphia, March 14, 1780, to George Wiat, of 
Danvers, he says: " The distressed state of our country demands all 
my attention, and so close has been my application to business that 
I have not been out of Congress one day since I took my seat except 
a few days by sickness. I consider myself as acting for a new race 
or new world, and millions yet unborn will be happy or miserable 
in this world in consequence of this proceeding of Congress. Had I 
not these great objects in view I could not be content to tarry here 
and leave the dearest friends in life at such a distance. But we have 
everything to get or lose as a people by this contest, and not only our- 
selves, but our posterity." 

The following is a quotation from a letter from Mr. Holten to Hon. 
Mr. Fisher, dated Philadelphia, April 17, 1780: 

" Your constant exertions in the great cause of our country can't 
but make you highly respected by all her true friends that have the 
pleasure of your acquaintance. Therefore in this light I hope to be 
considered in addition to personal respect. It is now five years since 
the commencement of this war, and great difficulties we have had to 
encounter, and the campaign is now opening upon us, and I am sorry 
to say we are poorly prepared for it. The depreciation of our cur- 
rency has greatly deranged and embarrassed our public affairs, and I 
might add almost put a total stop to the movements of our armies, 
and though I can't but suppose the Honorable Assembly are sensible 
of the state to which we are reduced, yet do they really consider their 
own danger and how much we have at stake, and not only ourselves, 
but posterity, for what value are our lives and estates to us if the 
common cause is not supported? But it may be said. What can be done 
more by this people? I answer that I think they can relieve them- 
selves, and I believe they would if they were fully sensible of their 
danger. Men, money, and provisions are the principal things wanted, 



188 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

but the two latter I am most concerned about, for without them it will 
be impossible to keep the army together. I believe you will agree 
with me that the recommendations of Congress should be carried fully 
into effect if possible, for m this union of strength and exertion is our 
greatest security. But don't thmk (my worthy friend) I despair of 
the common cause. No; it is too good and just for me to admit a 
doubt of the final success ; yet we may be further reduced before the 
good people will see their danger and exert themselves accordingly. 
Congress are sensible of their situation and are exerting themselves 
to put a stop to all unnecessary expenses m the great departments of 
the army, and to that end have lately appointed a committee with 
very great powers. They are to endeavor to find out the abuses and 
rectify them and to carry their plans into effect even before they 
report to Congress. 

" The necessary expenses in these departments (I make no doubt) 
have been great, but it is not so much to be wondered at when we 
consider how we were driven into this war." 

The following is a letter from Samuel Holten to Col. Enoch Put- 
nam, of Danvers, dated Princeton, August 21, 1783: 

" It has not been for want of personal respect that I have not done 
myself the pleasure of addressing you before, but from multiplicity 
of business I have been engaged in. 

" Although it is some time since hostilities ceased, yet you will 
be pleased to accept my congratulations on such a happy and glorious 
event. However, we have great difficulties yet to encounter, and our 
late enemies and disappointed people seem to be more sensible of it 
than the good people of these states; and this being the case, I fear 
that it may be a considerable time before the definitive treaty of 
peace will be finished, or any commercial treaty agreed upon between 
these states and the British king. They still hope to divide us in our 
public councils, and in consequence thereof that each state will carry 
on their trade with them as we used to do when we were their prov- 
inces, which will be greatly to our disadvantage. They can't yet 
come down to law, as they think, to give us an equal chance with them 
in the commercial world, but this they must consent to finally unless 
they can break the union of the continent and get the several states 
to quarreling with each other and with Congress, and I expect no 
means will be left untried to accomplish it. 

" You must be sensible that there have been a large number of per- 
sons in all parts of the United States that have been inimical to us from 
the beginning of the contest, and as we are not now at war with the 



The Banquet. 189 

common enemy, so we are apt to be off our guard respecting those 
people, who now dare to come forward in pubhc life and find fault 
with things that have been done by Congress in years past which has 
been a means under God of saving this people from ruin; and some 
have influence enough to procure seats in our general assemblies, 
and that gives them great opportunities to find fault with the doings 
of Congress and endeavor to counteract their proceedings ; and what 
gives these sort of people great advantage at this time is the good 
people being burthened with the charge of the war. They tell them 
it is owing to misconduct in our public affairs, and that they can 
set things right and relieve them of their taxes, and it is not to be 
wondered at that sundry of the good people believe them. But it is 
impossible to make those inimical people like our new republican 
governments. From their hearts they wish to destroy them, and yet 
hope we shall be obliged to fall under the British government, or at 
least some of the states, if they can divide us in our public councils. 
No doubt you have heard that the state of Massachusetts has pub- 
licly remonstrated against the proceedings of Congress in two in- 
stances. I have not time to enlarge on this subject, but beloved 
Hutchinson can inform you more of this matter. 

" The remonstrance has been read in Congress, and I shall spare 
no pains in endeavoring to prevent any disputes between Congress and 
the state I have the honor to represent, as I foresee the consequences. 
God grant that this people may not again be involved in all the horrors 
of war. 

" The date of this letter has informed you where I am, and I assure 
you, sir, my situation is much more agreeable than it was in Phila- 
delphia, even before Congress were surrounded with armed soldiers 
with fixed bayonets. Our situation there was disagreeable for some 
hours, as the soldiers seemed to be prepared for the worst purposes. 

" The land in this town is an advantageous situation, being high, 
and the people are very agreeable, but what adds greatly to the 
appearance is the college, which is two hundred feet in length, built 
with stone and lime." 

Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, was elected president of Congress 
Thursday, November 11, 1784 (Journals of Congress, Volume X, page 
4). This was the highest office in the government at the time, and in 
same volume, page 268, the following may be found: 

" Wednesday, August 17, 1785. 
" The President, from indisposition being prevented from attend- 



190 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

ing to the House, Congress proceeded to the election of a chairman, 
and a ballot being taken, the Hon. Samuel Holten was elected." 

I have found three letters which Holten wrote to his constituents 
in Danvers in which he mentions his election, the first to Dr. Wads- 
worth, dated August 29, 1785, in which he said: " Since mj'' last, I 
was unanimously elected president of Congress "; the second to Col. 
Israel Hutchinson, dated New York, September 2, 1785: " I am still in 
the chair "; and the third to John Kettell, dated September 12, 1785: 
" I stUl continue my lodging in Long Island and I am still in the chair." 

Holten also wrote a letter to Gov. John Hancock, dated Princeton, 
October 3, 1783, in which he said: " On the 9th inst. I had the honor 
of informing your Excellency that Congress had determined that 
buildings should be erected for their use at or near the Falls of the 
Delaware, but the determination not being satisfactory to the southern 
states. Congress on Tuesday last resolved that buildings for their use 
should likewise be erected ' at or near the lower falls of Potomac or 
Georgetown,' and they have also determined that until said buildings 
are prepared for their reception, Congress shall sit in Annapolis and 
Trenton, alternately, not exceeding one year at a time in either place, 
and they have passed a resolution authorizing and directing the 
President to adjourn Congress on the 12th day of November next, to 
meet at Annapolis on the 26th of the same month for the despatch of 
public business. This seems to give more general satisfaction. I 
understand Mr. Van Berkell, the Dutch minister, is in the city of 
Philadelphia, but he has not yet made us a visit, and I do not expect 
he will be received in his public capacity until after Congress meets at 
Annapolis. Congress have, by proclamation, discharged all that part 
of the army that were furloughed and have left a discretionary power 
with the general regarding the remainder." 

On March 5, 1783, he wrote a letter to John Hancock, saying: 
" Two days since we asked the attention of Congi-ess to making your 
Excellency a grant for your expenses while president of Congress "; 
and on April 1, 1783, he wrote another letter informing Governor 
Hancock that " Congress yesterday passed a resolution in your favor 
for S3,248." 

On July 5, 1787, he wrote a letter to Governor Hancock in which 
he said: " Since my arrival yesterday was the first session of Congress. 
It is surprising how inattentive some of the gentlemen are who have 
accepted seats in Congress. Surely this is not the time for neglect 
of duty." And also a letter to Captain Samuel Page, of Danvers, 
dated Philadelphia, January 3, 1794: " Our affairs as a nation are 



The Ba7iquet. 191 

really delicate. The people have too much sense to believe the men 
elected to Congress immediately become rogues." 

On June 9, 1787, Holten made a bill of sale to John Kettell for the 
sum of twenty-four pounds, thirteen shillings, sixpence, for one half 
of all his stock of cattle in Danvers, " to be improved jointly on my 
farm for the benefit of both." 

While in Congress his salary in 1794 was $6 a day while in session, 
and the same pay while on the road. It took nineteen days to make 
the journey of three hundred and eighty miles. 

In Volume III, page 361, Danvers Records: 

" December 6, 1787. Warrant issued to see if the town will elect 
one or more persons to represent them in a convention to be holden 
in the State House in Boston on the second Wednesday of January 
next, agreeable to a resolve of the General Court of the 25th of October 
last, respecting the new proposed form of government for the United 
States. Also to see if it be their minds to give any instructions to 
the person or persons they may so elect, etc." 

" At a legal meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of 
the town of Danvers lawfully qualified to vote in the election of repre- 
sentatives in the North meetinghouse in said Danvers, December 11, 
1787, at one o'clock p.m., the question was put to see if they would 
send any delegates to the proposed convention, and it passed in the 
affirmative. The question was then put to see if they would send 
two delegates to said convention, and it passed in the affirmative. 
Voted that one quarter of an hour be allowed the electors to prepare 
and bring in their votes for delegates. The time being out, and the 
votes all laid on the table, the selectmen counted and sorted the votes. 
The whole number of votes was as follows: Samuel Holten, Esq., 63; 
Israel Hutchinson, 50; William Shillaber, 14; and the selectmen 
declared the Hon. Samuel Holten and Israel Hutchinson, Esq., duly 
elected. Voted not to give their delegates any instructions." 

Holten was appointed judge of probate for the county of Essex in 
1796 and resigned in 1815. He was also chief justice of the Court of 
Sessions for the county of Essex, and resigned January 15, 1813. His 
letter of resignation begins with the words, " I have thought it ad- 
visable for reasons not necessary to mention." His resignation was 
accepted on the 26th of January, 1813. He died January 2, 1816, 
and is buried in what is now known as Holten Cemetery, Danvers. 
His will, which is dated Danvers, June 21, 1814, and is witnessed by 
James Putnam, David Wilkins, and Frederick Howe, contains the 
following provision: " I give the use and improvement of one and 



192 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

one-half acres of land for a burying yard in the burying pasture, so 
called, in the place we now bury, to be for the use of my family and 
the neighborhood, and to be called hereafter by the name of Holten's 
Burying Ground. ... I do hereby direct that no person or persons 
that appear indebted to me be sued or put to cost or trouble if they 
appear poor or unable to pay." 

The inventory of his estate was made out by Amos Tapley, Caleb 
Oakes, and John Page as appraisers, and the first item thereof is the 
farm homestead, containing one hundred and nine acres, $5,000. 
This is the house at the corner of Holten and Centre streets. The 
total amount of real estate in the inventory is $9,860; the total 
amount of personal estate is $2,787.32. 

There is an agreement in the probate papers, dated May 15, 1823, 
indicating that the only heirs-at law then living of Samuel Holten 
were Mary Putnam, Porter Kettell, Mary Ann Putnam, and George 
Osgood. 

Samuel Holten earned his epitaph, which is, " He sustained various 
oflBces of trust under the state government and that of the Union with 
ability and integrity to the almost unanimous acceptance of his 
constituents." 

The Toastmaster: 

To understand the form of our government it is well for us to know 
the spirit of our founders and the basis on which the government was 
founded. I introduce Daniel N. Crowley, Esq. 

Mr. Crowley responded : 

Mr. Toastmaster: Conscious of my unworthiness to properly re- 
spond to this sentiment, I still arise readily, if not eagerly, to seek 
the opportunity to express my admiration for those men who planted 
on these shores those little colonies from which this great state has 
grown. I gladly acknowledge my great indebtedness to them for the 
great privileges and liberties which, in common with you all, I enjoy. 
We are all indebted to them for our good fortune in having our 
lives cast in a country where liberty and education are to be had at 
the same price by the poor and the rich, and where the poorest as 
well as the richest may not only hope for, but attain, the highest 
civil positions. The Pilgrims and the Pm-itans have been subjected 
to the severest censure; their memory has been hallowed by the 
greatest praise. They have been denounced as bigots, and they have 



The Banquet. 193 

been proclaimed saints. They were religious enthusiasts, and they 
were intolerant. They came here, fleeing from religious persecution, 
to establish a colony in which they would be free to exercise their 
religion according to their convictions. 

It is not at all necessary that one should hold, even in the modified 
form of to-day, their religious tenets in order to find much to admire 
in the spirit that pervaded and controlled their lives; and to find 
palliation and excuse, if not justification, for all that cannot be admired. 
However zealous they were for freedom to worship God according to 
the dictates of their own consciences and convictions, it is scarcely true 
that they were in favor of religious liberty; nor can it be claimed for 
them that they sought to establish a colony or a state in which the 
right to worship God, each man according to his own convictions and 
the dictates of his heart, was to be a fundamental law. 

Their days throughout all western and southern Europe were, 
indeed, troublesome times. England had passed from Catholicism as 
a state church to the Anglican church; and under the Stuarts and 
Laud it was feared by a great mass of the people that the Anglican 
church was being subtly but designedly converted back to Rome. 
Religion became politics ; the type of government. The masses of the 
English people feared, not so much Catholic form of worship, as a form 
of government shaped and conforming to that which it had been the 
policy of the Roman hierarchy to establish and maintain in the differ- 
ent European countries. A government which, if it did not recognize 
the right of the Court of Rome to dictate its policies, did recognize 
the right of that court to put a veto upon all policies that it considered 
dangerous to its power and its pretensions. 

France had been involved in this political-religious struggle; 
Germany had been rent by it. In the Netherlands it had grown into 
frenzy. They belonged, at that time, to Spain. Philip II sat on the 
Spanish throne, narrow, pessimistic, gloomy, and bigoted. He 
believed in the absolutism of the church and the divine authority of 
kings. 

The people of Holland, Zealand, and Belgium were merchants, 
manufacturers, traders, and artisans. Each occupation had its own 
guild, where its members were wont to meet and discuss all matters 
of interest to their own calling. And when the great religious con- 
troversy broke forth they saw no reason why they should not consider 
it and decide upon it for themselves, as in all those other matters, the 
consideration of which had made them prosperous individually, and 
their little communities and their cities intelligent, rich, and free. 



194 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

The Reformation took great root here ; their trade and commerce 
carried their opinions into France and spread them throughout 
England. 

PoHtical jealousies among the reigning monarchs of Europe, and 
selfish interests, caused them to adopt the one side or the other in the 
great religious upheaval. 

England, under Henry VIII, had cut loose from the Roman church 
and set up its own church, of which the monarch was made the head. 
When his stormy life had come to its end, he was followed, after a 
few years, by his Catholic daughter, who, incensed by the wrongs 
heaped upon her virtuous and beloved mother, with a heart filled with 
hatred against those who aided and counseled Henry in wronging 
her, seized the first opportunity to avenge her, and at the same time 
govern according to her convictions by overthrowing the Anglican 
church and setting up again in power and in favor the Catholic re- 
ligion. Her zeal was as immoderate as her vengeance was insatiate. 
Filled to overflowing with this just sense of wrong and desire for ven- 
geance, there was no room in her mind or heart for reason or prudence. 
She married the King of Spain; to please him she involved England 
in a war with France, its ally. She lost the love of her people without 
gaining either the love or companionship of her husband. She died of 
a broken heart. Her reign, though short, was such that it prociired for 
her a cognomen that will endure for all time, whether justly or un- 
justly will ever remain an open question. She was succeeded by her 
sister, Elizabeth, who, on the threshold of her reign, wavered as to 
which policy she should adopt. Like her contemporary, Henry IV 
of France, who deemed it best, for reasons of state, to become a 
Catholic, Elizabeth, deemed it expedient to adopt the Protestant 
cause, to which she gave the vigor of her long reign, during which it had 
become, firmly and generally, the religion of England and the religion 
of the government. She, in turn, was succeeded by her cousin James. 
A Protestant in profession and in external practice, he could not be 
the son of the unfortunate Queen of Scots without partakmg, in some 
degree at least, of a feeling of bitterness towards those who had led his 
mother to the block ; without some tender regard for that religion to 
which she was loyal throughout her life, the devotion to which was 
manifest in her last agony. He could not be her son without having 
naturally some feeling of tenderness and generosity to those of that 
religion who were loyal to his mother; who were faithful to her 
throughout her life; sons of fathers who had sacrificed their fortunes 
and their lives in their loyalty to her. 



The Banquet. 195 

The feeling which the first James entertained without conscious- 
ness, the first Charles, his son, but ill concealed. The question of 
religion, or the differences of religion, became a choice between abso- 
lutism and parliamentary government. Charles I paid the penalty 
of his life to his endeavor to establish the absolutism of the king. 

Parliamentary government as embodied in Cromwell went to the 
other extreme and became a gloomy t>Tanny, a tyranny that ran riot 
to such an extent that, after Cromwell, the people of England flew to 
the Stuarts for refuge. 

The sympathy with the old religion that the first James felt without 
consciousness, and the first Charles but ill concealed, the second 
Charles privately, and the second James publicly, acknowledged. 

During all these reigns the people of England were kept in a state of 
disturbance, faction existed everywhere, and the struggle between 
absolutism and the people waxed strong. For a time the one side 
would appear triumphant, and again for a time, the other. Absolutism 
became identified either with the old religion or with the Anglican 
church ; parliamentary government with the new religion. 

The merchant and trading class of the English people were of the 
new religion, but they tired of the eternal struggle and sought for an 
opportunity to pursue their trade and to exercise their religion without 
interference with the one, or loss to the other. 

Reformed religion had become predominant in Holland, and many 
of the brethren in England sought refuge there from the disturbance 
to their occupations and from religious persecution. Some of them at 
home, of a speculative turn of mind, had obtained large grants of land 
in the wilderness of America, and charters for trade, and they held out 
the promise of gain and of freedom in a new world to those of the 
faithful who had sought refuge in Holland. Their eyes had already 
been turned to the new world. They came hither! They came not, as 
I have said, to establish a colony for the free exercise of religion, but a 
colony for the undisturbed exercise of their religion; where they 
would have an opportunity to build their temples and renew their 
fortunes free from forfeiture and molestation. " For righteousness' 
sake." It was this spirit that brought them here. Then- experience 
had taught them endurance. Their broken fortunes, their losses, 
their hopes, and their necessities filled them with determination and 
resolution. 

In the old world there was nothing to which they could return 
but vexation of spirit, if not loss of life. 

In the new world they soon learned there was nothing for them 



196 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

to hope for except that which could be achieved by the hard and 
unremitting toil of their own strong arms. But they thought alike, 
and were, at least, at peace. Oppression in the rear and danger in the 
fore forced them to that hard and determined intolerance which 
became the ruling characteristic of their lives. They planted their 
meetinghouses, and about them they built their dwellings. They 
believed that the Bible was the rule of life, that every one should read 
it for himself, and schools were necessary in which their children could 
learn to read. In their churches they preached and practiced intol- 
erance, but their schools were free to all ; if not free from intolerance, 
at least free to all. The hard rigor of their church endured with all its 
strength for a while, but it began to decay and to decline until it 
passed away. As the rigor of their church relaxed, other sectaries 
sprang up; each built its church, each church on days of prayer 
sheltered its own votaries, but the poverty of all forced the children of 
all to a common school ; here there was necessarily some toleration, 
some freedom. The children who mingled together, too young to 
understand the distinction of creed, were old enough to appreciate 
the sameness and enjoy the generosity of youth ; they learned to love 
one another; this love endured, and toleration and freedom spread. 
The freedom of their schools grew apace, flourished, blossomed, and 
ripened in the intelligent communities that have made the great 
New England states, states which, sending out their little bands of 
emigrants here and there, have made the great nation in which we 
live, whose blessings we enjoy, and whose blessings after we have 
ceased to enjoy them have been so securely founded in that love that 
has sprung from youthful association that, with all assurance for their 
continuance we can transmit them to our descendants. 

It would be idle to claim for these founders of a new nation the 
virtue of toleration. It would be unjust to charge them with vindic- 
tive persecution. Their characteristic evil was intolerance, but it 
was intolerance which in them was not a desire, but, as they viewed 
it, a necessity; an intolerance assumed not for aggression but, as 
they viewed it, in self-defence. It was a fortification behind which 
they intrenched themselves in the great struggle which had arisen in 
their fatherland and which they deemed necessary to prevent the 
renewal and continuance of their troubles in the land to which they 
had fled for refuge. Viewed in the light of the present day, and in 
the spirit of the present times, it was harsh, bitter, ungenerous, un- 
charitable, unchristian ; viewed from their standpoint, in the light of 
their day, in the spirit of the times in which they lived, it was a 
natural means of self-defence. 



The Banquet. 197 

Those of us who live, who enjoy the great benefits of the system 
which they founded, are hardly worthy of our good fortune if we 
cannot do them the justice to account for this, the greatest of their 
shortcomings, by an honest consideration of, and allowance for, what 
they thought necessary for their preservation. 

I believe it to be but just to them to say that they considered the 
toleration of any other creed or sect to be but the renewal of that 
strife and conflict to avoid which they had left their homes, their 
kindred, and their opportunities for material progress, and cast their 
lot in the wilderness, separated from all that was dear to them by a 
trackless ocean three thousand miles wide, and that to renew the 
conflict would render their sacrifice in vain. 

It is not palliating the rigor of their conduct too much, nor justifying 
it undeservedly, to attribute it to self-defence. The supporters and 
defenders of the old religion openly and constantly justified their con- 
duct and the cruel punishments they inflicted on the converts and 
professors of the new doctrine as necessary for the defence of their 
church and the form of government under which they lived. 

Richelieu, the great cardinal of France, who might equally well be 
called its great military genius, defended his persecution of the Hugue- 
nots, his cruel maintenance of the siege of Rochelle, and his ceaseless 
labor and endless expense in its continuance, on the ground that it 
was necessary as a means of maintaining the government and the 
church against the inroads of the new sect. And that that was the 
view he took of it is evidenced by the clemencj^ shown by him to 
the inhabitants of Rochelle when the surrender of that city removed the 
danger which he considered so imminent. That at that time intol- 
erance was actually necessary as self-defence from the standpoint of 
the one religion or the other appears almost conclusively from the 
fate that befell the Maryland colony, which, founded by Roman 
Catholics, establishing a colony on the fundamental law of freedom of 
religion to all sects, was soon so overrun by Protestants that the 
founders of the colony not only soon lost control over it, but lost the 
freedom to exercise their own religion, which they had guaranteed 
to their religious opponents. But whatever view may be taken, and 
however much may be denied them as an excuse for it, there is still 
left something which redeems them at lea^t from total condemnation, 
and commends them to history and posterity. Their hardihood, their 
perseverance, their endurance, their constancy of purpose, the rigor 
in personal conduct which they inflicted upon their own lives in the 
midst of all their trial . and hardships, proves, if not the correctness of 
their convictions, absolutely the sincerity of them. Nor does the 



198 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

occasional breach of these rules of life, revealed by the records of 
their churches and of the courts of their day, disprove this statement. 
That the ecclesiastical and the civil records reveal and prove that in 
this early period there were frequent infringements upon and breaches 
of the Puritan law is the very best proof that these harsh rules of life 
were not only laid down for the government of the colonies, but that 
they were rigorously enforced. What they deemed sinful was not only 
prohibited, but what they deeemd sin was, on detection, punished not 
only in the church, but in the state. Thoughtful reflection upon the 
austerity of their conduct and their laws compels us to look with 
pitying regi'et upon the belief that they almost entertained the con- 
clusion that it was necessary to shut mirth and sunshine out of their 
home that truth and righteousness might abide there. When cheer- 
fulness and pleasure could best support privation, want, and arduous 
labor, they endured all these in discharge of what they thought a 
religious duty. 

The Toastmaster: 

Mr. A. H. Paton has long been familiar with the affairs of Danvers, 
past and present, and should be able to forecast the future of this 
town. We will now look to him for instruction. 

Mr. Paton responded as follows : 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, — No one with even a slight 
knowledge of the history of the past fifty years can fail to realize that 
it is the record of greatest progress the world has ever experienced. 
The citizens of Danvers may take just pride in the fact that during all 
these years the old town has always kept its place in this onward 
march of man's development. If we analyze the subject it will be 
found that as we have grown in material wealth, we have with hke 
pace advanced to higher planes of thought and life. We are abso- 
lutely the creatures of our environment, and as we surround ourselves 
with the ever-increasing number and scope of things that minister 
to the comfort and eliminate the privations of life; as we lessen the 
hours and lighten the burdens of toil ; and as we in any way make it 
easier and pleasanter to live, we thereby and in equal ratio broaden 
the minds and enlarge the hearts of men. We thus bring men gradu- 
ally nearer to that perfection of estate and to that millenium of time 
when the will of God shall be done on earth as it is in heaven. The 
hoped-for time comes slowly, because it has eternity for its day, but 



The Banquet. 199 

come it does ; and if we measure by the multiplications of inventive 
genius and the infiuences of their helpful skill in adding to the joys 
of life, then time has been marching with ever-quickening speed that 
indicates a close approach to the goal by the time another fifty-year 
cycle has rolled around. From what is to what shall be is no farther 
than from what was to what is. It may then be that when some of 
those now here and those that are to come shall celebrate the next 
half century of our history, the immense development of man's powers 
will have enabled him to compel fulfillment of all the hopes of the 
wildest optimist who helps to celebrate this one hundredth and 
fiftieth anniversary. 

Man will then have harnessed the tides of the moon and the rays of 
the sun. Children wiU not be compelled to slave in mills nor learn 
crime in slums, but will riot in sunshine and happiness and in the 
cultivation of those qualities of mind and heart and body that will 
lead them to the perfection of womanhood and manhood. Women 
will be truly the queens of homes, clothed in raiment like the lily and 
the rainbow, directing the household machinery that will automatically 
do their bidding. Men will be free from irksome dangerous drudgery, 
performing the work of the world with perfect tools that obey their 
well-balanced, well-trained minds and their higher knowledge. The 
products of their skill will be in such profusion as are now the gifts 
of nature, and they will be so equitably divided that none shall be 
poor and all will be rich. We shall have discovered the fountain of 
youth, and have conquered death. Then wars will be no more, and 
men will love each other. Peace, plenty, prosperity, and happiness 
will reign, and, because men so will it, a millenium will have come. 

The Toastmaster: 

There is no one among us better qualified to send our message to 
the bi-centennial than the distinguished son of Danvers who will now 
speak to us, — the Hon. Alden P. White. 

Salem, Mass., April 1,* 1907. 
To THE Committee on Publication: 

I recall with distinctness that during the ten odd minutes in which a 
tired audience showed the comfort of knowing that I was the last 
speaker I addressed some of my talk, over their long-suffering heads, 
to Posterity. Verih^ I was somewhat possessed of an ambition to 
send a small consignment of my own words on that exhilarating career 
which orators describe as "rolling down the ages." But long since they 

* This is an elastic date. — Committee. 



200 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

have fallen by the wayside; and not havmg manuscript or notes I 
cannot now recover them, even to set them joyously on their way 
within the comfortable vehicle of your book. 

No, the speech uttered almost five years ago will not recast itself 
with any satisfaction. I have tried and tried, and can show you 
pages wherein choice phrases have turned double somersaults to find 
a proper setting, and scratches-out and interlineations betray the 
forced and unresponsive effort of my brain. I suppose I had some 
steam on, then. Now, my wood is wet, and I've lost the cover to the 
kettle; the thing won't boil any more. 

The raw material of my speech was the Peace Convocation at the 
Hague, which was then fairly contemporaneous with our celebration. 

Conscious that this topic had no peculiar reference to the centennial 
of Danvers I side-stepped to it by complimentary allusions to the 
fullness and accuracy with which the previous speakers had covered 
all the ground of local interest, and by remarking that while we were 
assembled to celebrate the life of our little individual community, 
we were but a representative unit of that world-wide activity of 
intelligent, progressive humanity which we call civilization, and that 
it was not unbecoming to link with our proceedings some recognition 
of an event of universal significance. No one openly refuted this 
proposition and I was suffered to proceed. 

You remember the letter of the Czar, dated August 24, 1898? It 
was an invitation to all nations represented at the Imperial Court of 
Prussia to arrange for a conference concerning the maintenance of a 
general peace and the reduction of armaments, as the ideal towards 
which the endeavors of all governments should be directed. 

You at least remember how all the world sat up straight and paid 
attention, and wondered what it meant. The missive was received 
with all shades of emotion from enthusiasm to downright distrust. I 
tried to express my belief that the young ruler, autocrat that he was, 
spoke with the heart of a man and meant what his prime mmister said. 

In response to such summons the nations of the earth, orient and 
Occident, old world and new, some twenty-five in all, represented by 
their choicest men, convened on the birthday of the Czar, May 18, 1899, 
within the summer palace of the maiden Queen of Holland. 

I said something about the chosen place of meeting, and the in- 
spiration of its associations; something of the brave people who 
wrested their country from the sea and made it the abode of liberty. 
Then I recalled the personnel of our own representation, men to be 
proud of, with long and well-earned titles of distinction. 



The Banquet. 201 

The conference lasted about ten weeks. It discussed intricate 
problems and entered into conventions concerning the laws and the 
customs of war on land and sea. It established, toward the end of 
the avoidance of war, for the first time in the world's history, a Perma- 
nent International Court of Arbitration. 

I tried to express something of the grandeur of this conception, 
something of the vast possibilities inherent in this the first great 
general movement towards the substitution of reason for slaughter, 
the reduction of peace ideals to a working basis of practical realism. 

To be sure, our war with Spain just preceded the conference; 
England plunged into the Boer war almost as soon as the conference 
dissolved. And since our celebration the struggle between Russia 
and Japan for a time hid the House in the Woods in the thicker smoke 
of a yet more terrible war. 

But at Portsmouth the Hague idea triumphed. Only recently 
architects of many nationalities have been m competition for designs 
for a permanent building worthy the new Tribunal, to be erected near 
the meeting-place of the conference. Certain international cases of 
importance have actually been settled by the Court's arbitrament. 
Another conference of nations is assured and imminent. 

Despite these recent wars I cling to my faith in the Court of Arbitra- 
tion as a new and beneficent factor in the determination of the destinies 
of mankind. I see its jurisdiction more and more invoked, its influence 
ever broader and broader, its dignity and authority ever more firmly 
established. At no distant day its beautiful temple will arise and the 
quaint and quiet city of its abode will become one of the holy spots of 
earth. 

This I believed, — and it was the one point of my little speech 
at our banquet, — that the establishment of this great and vmique 
tribunal is well nigh the crowning achievement of our generation. 

I uttered this opinion not so much to my hearers as to you, Pos- 
terity, who from your far-off vantage point will judge of our day and 
our deeds unobscured by the temporary clouds which distort our 
own vision. I uttered it as a sort of prophetic challenge to the con- 
firmation of your retrospective experience. 

And, ah. Posterity, as we say in our business notes, " I await your 
reply " with reference to this and many other matters of importance 
to us, with more keenness than I can tell you. I only wish that I 
could leave you my address. At present, it is. 
Yours very truly, 
and yours, too. Gentlemen of the Committee, 

Alden p. White. 



202 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

The services were concluded by singing " Auld Lang Syne " 
by the audience. 

Childeen's Entertainment. 
Peabody Institute was packed on Monday afternoon by the 
Httle folks, for whom a special entertainment was provided. 
Prof. Bennett Springer, of Boston, gave a fine entertainment 
of magic, tricks, and sleight-of-hand, and a Punch and Judy 
show was presented by Prof. Arthur Pryor, of Boston. Boxes 
of candy were presented to the happy children as they left 
the hall. 

Monday's Band Concerts. 

Two enjoyable concerts were given on the Square, in front 
of the Old Berry Tavern, Monday afternoon and evening, by 
the Salem Cadet Band, Jean M. Missud, leader. The Square 
and intersecting streets were crowded with an incessantly 
moving throng, and the space about the band stand was 
completely taken. 

The programs were as follows : 

June 16. — Afternoon. 

1. March, "With Flying Colors " Missud 

2. Overture, " Light Cavalry " Suppe 

3. Waltz, " Wedding of the Winds " Hall 

4. Selection, National Melodies Bendix 

5. March, " Blackville Society " Franklin 

6. Selection, " Florodora " Stuart 

7. Waltz, " The Little Duchess " deKoven 

8. Selection, Popular Songs Mackie 

9. Cocoanut Dance Herman 

10. March, " King Dodo " Luders 

Evening, 7 to 9. 

1. March, " American Republic " Thiele 

2. Overture, " Poet and Peasant " Suppe 

3. Solo FOR Cornet, " II Baccio " Arr.byKeyes 

Mr. B. B. Keyes. 



The Ball. 203 

4. Waltz, " Miss Simplicity " Arr.byKeyes 

5. Selection, " King Dodo " Liiders 

6. March, " Creole Belles " Lampe 

7. Dance of the Skeletons Allen 

8. Selection, " II Trovatore " Verdi 

9. Gavotte, " A Lesson in Flirtation " Englander 

10. March, " The Billboard " Klohr 

The Ball. 

The ball, which was a part of the program of entertainments 
provided by the general committee, was held in the Town 
Hall, Monday evening, June 16. It was largely attended and 
proved to be a very enjoyable affair. The grand march was 
led by floor director Wallace P. Hood and wife, and sixty 
couples participated. The music was by the Salem Cadet 
Orchestra of ten pieces. The order of dances contained 
twenty-one numbers, with two intermissions. The first 
fourteen numbers were designed for the older people who 
were not familiar with the modern dances; quadrilles, lan- 
ders, Portland fancy, etc., predominating, and were thor- 
oughly enjoyed by those that participated. The last seven 
numbers were alternately waltzes and two-steps, for the benefit 
of the younger generation. The decorations were the same 
as for the banquet in the afternoon. The hall was beautifully 
draped, and palms and ferns were grouped on the stage. Ices, 
cake, and fruit punch were served at intermission by F. W. 
Mangold. 

The committee organized early in the season and divided 
into sub-committees, all of whom worked conscientiously 
for the success of the event. 

The committee was made up as follows: 

Frank C. Damon. William H. Milton. 

Bertram P. Perley. A. Preston Chase. 

Lester S. Couch. Arthur E. Perkins. 

Thomas E. Tinsley. Wallace P. Hood. 

Walter P. Weston. Harold M. Wilkins. 



204 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

The officers of the ball were as follows : 

General Manager. 
Frank C. Damon. 

Floor Director. 
Wallace P. Hood. 

Aids. 

Lester S. Couch. Bertram P. Perley. 

Frank W. Ross. William H. Milton. 

Arthur E. Perkins. Harry H. Boutelle, M.D. 

Harold M. Wilkins. Edward J. Magee, M.D. 

Reception Committee. 
Walter P. Weston. Daniel N. Crowley. 

Thomas E. Tinsley. Joshua W. Nichols. 

A. Preston Chase. Thorndike P. Hawkes. 

John T. Carroll. Walter H. Brown. 

The order of dances was as follows : 

March and Circle. Waltz. 

1. Quadrille. 5. Quadrille. 

2. Two-Step. 6. Waltz. 

3. Portland Fancy. 7. Lanciers. 

4. Schottische. 

Intermission. 

8. Two-Step. 12. Schottische. 

9. Quadrille. 13. Quadrille. 

10. Waltz. 14. Two-Step. 

11. Portland Fancy. 

Intermission. 

15. Waltz. 19. Waltz. 

16. Two-Step. 20. Two-Step. 

17. Waltz. 21. Wahz. 

18. Two-Step. 



THE THIRD DAY. 

It was Bunker Hill Day, June 17. The chief spectacular 
event of this day was the parade. 



The Parade. 205 

Athletic sports in the afternoon, band concerts, and a balloon 
that did not ascend, completed the day's program. The 
celebration was brought to a close by a display of fireworks 
at the Park. 

The Parade. 

It was six miles long and took two hours to pass a given 
point. 

The sub-committee, under the leadership of Daniel N. 
Crowley, Esq., had labored vigorously and ably in its prepar- 
ation, but much of the success of the feature was due to 
the personal efforts and financial contributions of the chief 
marshal, Wm. Penn Hussey. The town showed its ap- 
preciation of his work by presenting him with a medal, 
commemorative of the event. 

It is probable that the old town never before witnessed such 
a spectacle. And not alone is this true as to the parade itself, 
but it is likewise true of the vast concourse of people from 
far and near which thronged the streets all day long. Every 
street car and every railroad train brought its quota, until 
it seemed as though there could be standing room for no more. 
One train on the Boston & Maine even had passengers on the 
car roofs. But, beyond a little congestion in the most inter- 
esting places, there was no discomfort. Taking the figures 
of the railroads, and adding them to the town's population, it 
is estimated that seventy-five thousand people or more viewed 
the procession at some point, or took part in it. One of the 
rarest sights was the mounted escort to the chief marshal, 
and over one thousand horsemen are known to have taken 
part. 

The procession was formed in close order, and marched fast, 
but it extended over six miles, and two hours were consumed 
in passing a given point. 

The rain of the night before had greatly freshened the grass 
and foliage, and with the beautiful massing of colors on public 
and private buildings the scene was one of rare picturesque- 



206 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

ness. Thousands of flags waved in the breeze, and, amid 
these surroundings, the thousand horsemen led off in the 
march. Next to the horsemen the school children were the 
most attractive feature. Over fifteen hundred of them were 
conveyed in forty-one floats, all handsomely decorated. A 
notable attraction was the Second Corps of Cadets of Salem, 
and a battalion of the Eighth Infantry. The staff of the 
Cadet Corps was mounted. Another feature was the splendid 
show made by the veterans of the Civil War, Post 90 of Dan- 
vers being supplemented by large delegations from the posts 
in Peabody, Beverly, Salem, and other places. 

Capt. J. C. R. Peabody Camp, Legion of Spanish War 
Veterans, and Ward Camp, Sons of Veterans, also attracted 
much attention. 

The most notable floats occupied by the children of the 
public schools were those representing " Penn's Treaty with 
the Indians " and " Liberty Bell." The Peabody Cadets, 
an organization of boys, was a noticeable feature. In addition 
to the regular organization there was a fully-equipped ambu- 
lance corps and a float containing several young girls repre- 
senting the Red Cross. At the conclusion of the parade the 
boys had a sham battle on the Hussey estate, '' Riverbank." 

The firemen made a splendid show, the local apparatus 
being augmented by delegations from Peabody and Beverly. 
A notable feature of this division was a " one-horse shay," 
the occupants being Daniel Buxton, of Peabody, ninety-one 
years old, and Henry Very, of Danvers, aged eighty-one. 
The " shay " was ornamented with old-time fire buckets and 
hats, and the vehicle was drawn by an ancient horse, the 
property of Mr. Very. 

In another carriage were Edmund Osborne, aged ninety 
years, and H. M. Osborne, aged seventy-three, both of Pea- 
body, who were members of the fire department, as were 
Messrs. Buxton and Very, fifty years ago, before the division 
of the town, and who took part in the parade held in the 



The Parade. 207 

town in 1852 in commemoration of the one hundredth anni- 
versary. The ancient hand engine owned by the Torrent 
Company of Peabody was also in line. 

Another featm-e of the procession was a long array of drags, 
coaches, and other equipages of summer residents of the 
North Shore. There were floats representing " Washington 
Crossing the Delaware," " Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party," 
" Putnamville Sewing Circle," '* Danvers Hospital," and 
a boat propelled by a bicycle. The trades feature of the 
procession proved of much interest. Dean Perley, who had 
operated a blacksmith shop for forty-eight years, had a fully 
equipped shop in working order on a float which was drawn 
by a yoke of oxen, each ox weighing seventeen hundred and 
fifty pounds. A wagon owned by George W. Pickering, of 
Salem, drawn by five span of gray horses, each horse 
weighing nearly fifteen hundred pounds, attracted much 
favorable comment along the route. 

Bringing up the rear of the procession was a large elm-tree 
on a drag, its roots carefully covered with burlap, and the 
trimk and limbs protected as best they could be. Notwith- 
standing the ultimate failure of this incident of the procession, 
it will not be amiss at this time to record the facts connected 
with the tree, for had it not died, as a result of its several 
hours of travel about the town, there would have been stand- 
ing on the public park on Conant Street to-day one of the 
finest specimens of the elm ever seen. The tree sprang from 
a little shoot on the Old Berry Tavern stable lot many years 
ago, and the then proprietor, Eben G. Berry, so constructed 
the wash stand of the stable as to protect it in its growth. 
When the old stable was demolished it was properly cared 
for by his heirs, but stood in an undesirable location on the 
lot. In response to a request from Dr. W. W. Eaton of the 
Improvement Society, the present owners of the property, 
Mrs. Frank C. Damon and her brother, Harry G. Johnson, 
grandchildren of Mr. Berry, presented the tree to the society. 



208 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

upon the condition that it be carefully transplanted at the 
head of the wide entrance avenue to the public park. The 
work was intrusted by Lester S. Couch, of the committee, 
to Linehan & Son, of Prides Crossing, which firm had success- 
fully transplanted many larger trees along the North Shore 
for wealthy summer residents. But for once this reliable 
firm failed. Either because of the season of the year, or the 
rough usage it encountered in its trip about town, or possibly 
because it was not properly watered after it was transplanted , 
the beautiful tree withered and died, and thus an excellent 
and highly appropriate feature of the celebration came to 
naught. 

The procession started from " Riverbank " promptly at 
ten o'clock, and proceeded over the following route: 

Water Street, through High, Elm, Sylvan, Adams, Pine, 
Holten, Cherry, Maple, Poplar, Locust, and Maple streets to 
the Square, where it was reviewed by the chief marshal, and 
then on to Conant Street, where it disbanded about one 
o'clock. 

The following was the general make-up of the parade : 

Platoon of ten policemen from Salem, Capt. G. H. Blinn in command. 
American Band of Peabody, P. J. Ingraham, bandmaster, twenty-five 

pieces. 
Chief Marshal William Penn Hussey, Assistant Marshal J. Fred Hussey, 

Gen. Francis H. Appleton, chief of staff; Everett E. Austin, 

chief aid ; Messrs. Greene, Laskey, and Washburn, line riders, and 

mounted cavalcade of many hundred aids. 

FIRST DIVISION. 

Salem Cadet Band, twenty-six pieces, Jean Missud, leader. 

Second Corps Cadets, M. V. M., Lieut.-Col. W. F. Peck commanding; 

also chief of division Major Andrew Fitz. 
Company C, Capt. John E. Spencer commanding. 
Company D, Capt. Charles F. Ropes commanding. 
Company F, Capt. George E. Symonds commanding. 
Company B, Capt. Arthur N. Webb commanding. 
Provisional Battalion: Eighth Regiment, M. V. M., Capt. Edward J. 

Horton commanding. 



The Parade. 209 

Company H, Salem, Capt. George N. Jewett commanding. 
Company G, Gloucester, First Lieut. G. M. Kincaid commanding. 
Company E, Beverly, Capt. A. P. Gardner commanding. 

SECOND DIVISION. 

Dr. W. W. Eaton, Danvers, chief of division, and fifty mounted aids. 

Salem Brass Band, twenty-five pieces, J. H. Boyle, leader. 

J. C. R. Peabody Camp, Legion Spanish War Veterans, as escort to 
Post 90 G. A. R. of Danvers, Commander J. Irving Fuller. 

Post 90 G. A. R. of Danvers, T. D. Crowley commanding. 

Post 50 G. A. R. of Peabody, E. H. Davis commanding. 

Post 89 G. A. R. Beverly, John Crampsey commanding. 

Wagon with veterans of Post 90. 

Ward Relief Corps, of Danvers, on float handsomely decorated with 
white, and members of the corps surrounding " Liberty." 

Ward Camp Sons of Veterans, Danvers, H. S. Monies commanding. 

Barouches containing the selectmen and officials of surrounding towns. 

Hamilton and Wenham Pioneers, Henry Carey commanding; George 
Tuck as Uncle Sam. 

Float, Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Danvers, showing a 
fountain of water with mottoes, etc., and women in white. 

Officers of the town and of the Danvers Savings Bank in barouches. 
Also barouche containing Dr. A. P. Putnam, of the Danvers 
Historical Society; Hon. Robert S. Rantoul, of Salem; Prof. 
Woodbury, of Columbia College, president of the Beverly Histori- 
cal Society; Thomas Carroll, of the Peabody Historical Society. 

Hamilton town officials. 

Barouche with Joseph M. Bassett, selectman of Swampscott; John A. 
Batchelder and J. Hardy Towne, of Salem. 

City government of Beverly in water department wagon, with Mayor 
Cole. 

THIRD DIVISION, 

Daniel N. Crowley, chief of division, with mounted staff of forty 

horsemen. 
Peabody Cadets, with ambulance corps of little children and pony 

ambulance, Captain Spence commanding. 
Union Drum Corps of Gloucester. 
Forty school floats, Danvers Reform Club lifeboat, and other features. 

FOURTH DIVISION. 

Charles Hooper, chief of division; Joseph M. Whittier acting in his 
stead, with group of thirtj^-five mounted aids. 



210 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

Danvers Fire Department. 

Two carriages with old fire fighters : Henry Very, eighty-one years old ; 
Daniel Buxton, Peabody, ninety-one years of age, driving a horse 
forty years old. Also another carriage with H. M. Osborne, 
seventy-three, of Peabody, and Edmund Osborne, ninety, in 
flower-bedecked carriage. 

Danvers Improvement Society float, with pictures of improved sections 
about town. 

FIFTH DIVISION. 

Eighth Regiment Band, Lynn, twenty-six pieces ; Harry StUes, leader. 
Nicholas M, Quint, chief of division, and twenty-five mounted aids. 
Floats of fraternal and social organizations, tallyhoes, etc. 

SIXTH DIVISION. 

Isaac D. Pope, chief of division, with twenty-five mounted aids. 
National Guard Band, twenty-five pieces, C. F. Maurais, leader. 
One hundred and fifty-six wagons and floats. 

The Decorations. 
The citizens of the town vied with each other in the matter 
of decorating their homes and their places of business. The 
town was one blaze of color, in which " Old Glory" predomi- 
nated. The Danvers Mirror of the week following the cele- 
bration said: 

" To enumerate in detail the decorations would be to practically 
print a directory of the places of business and houses all along the 
line of march and vicinity. The center of the town was one solid 
mass of colors, one of the handsomest sights ever seen in the state. 
Both decorators and public said that they never saw anything more 
universal." 

Probably the most noticeable of the public buildings was 
the Town House. As was fitting, this structure was beauti- 
fully draped, the bunting, flags, and other decorations being 
relieved by excellent reproductions of town and state seals. 
Of the schoolhouses, the Maple Street, the Danversport, and 
the Tapley schools were tastefully dressed, each bearing 
some motto or mottoes suitable to the occasion. The Peabodv 



The Decorations. 211 

Institute made a handsome spectacle in the midst of its 
spacious grounds, the green of the trees and bright hues of 
the flower beds combining with the varied-colored streamers 
on the building to make a kaleidoscope, changing each moment 
as the gentle breezes stirred the foliage and the passing clouds 
lessened or intensified the sunlight. At the Hook and Ladder 
House on Maple Street, in addition to a dress of bunting, a 
picture of a fireman rescuing a woman from a burning build- 
ing was shown. At intervals along the main streets, from 
the Western Division station to the Danversport station on 
the Eastern Division of the Boston & Maine, flags were strung 
across the street on ropes. The same scheme was carried 
out from the Square to Tapleyville. The flag staff on the 
Square was used as a pivotal point for an elaborate display 
of banners, the other ends being fastened to the adjoining 
buildings on all sides. The main avenues to the town were 
thus transformed into blazing arches of color, each tiny flag or 
banner flaunting in the breeze its contribution to the welcome 
to visitors. The public square in front of the Old Berry 
Tavern and postoffice was one unbroken mass of color, and 
each business block contained some emblem, portrait, or 
motto. The arch at the head of Conant Street has already 
been mentioned. It consisted of three spans, the main one 
being forty feet across, and the smaller ones on each side 
twenty-five feet. This was finely decorated, and was illu- 
minated at night. Appropriate dates and symbols were 
displayed on a large banner suspended from the middle span. 
At Danversport, across Water Street, a large canvas was 
strung, bearing on each side a portrait of Chief Marshal 
Hussey, with the inscription, " To Our Marshal." 

The private decorations were very elaborate, among the 
most noticeable being the house and grounds of Wm. Penn 
Hussey. At the main entrance were three arches, bearing 
the inscriptions, " Welcome," " Chief Marshal Wm. Penn 
Hussey," " 150th Anniversary, Town of Danvers." Another 



212 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

large arch, with the name " Riverbank," was thrown across 
the entrance to the flight of stone steps leading to the front 
door. The house itself was profusely treated by the deco- 
rator and scores of electric lights were lighted at night. 

The Sports. 

Contests between athletes on the Square, and baseball 
games. 

Athletic sports were had on the Square, Tuesday afternoon. 
For the various foot and bicycle races there were first and 
second prizes of silver cups and money. There were also 
silver cups and money prizes in the fire department contests. 

The 100-yard dash was won by Roy Barnes, of Beverly, 
with Harry Carroll, of Peabody, second. 

The bicycle road race twice around Maple, Vineyard, Pine, 
Holten, and Elm streets was won by George Boyce, of Salem, 
with Matthew McNeil, of Peabody, second. 

The 880-yard run around Maple, Elm, Putnam, and Cherry 
streets was won by J. E. Gilroy, of Peabody; Roy Raymond, 
of Beverly, second. 

Roy Barnes, of Beverly, won first, and Harry Carroll, of 
Peabody, second, in the 220-yard dash. 

The 440-yard run was won by J. E. Gilroy, of Peabody; 
Roy Barnes, of Beverly, second. 

James Kerans, of Danvers, took first in the 220-yard 
hurdles; Daniel Libby, of Peabody, second. 

Roy Raymond, of Beverly, won first, and J. E. Gilroy, 
second, in the mile run, twice around Elm, Putnam, Cherry, 
and Maple streets. 

The hose-reel races against time proved intensely inter- 
esting. Four companies contested, running 150 yards, 
laying 150 feet of hose, and getting water through. Hose 2 
of Beverly and Hose 5 of Danvers Centre were practically 
tied at thirty-two and one-fourth seconds, but Beverly was 
given first place. Hose 4 of Danvers was thirty-four seconds 



The Sports. 213 

and Hose 2 of Tapleyville, thirty-five seconds. Hose 2 would 
have given the leaders a close rub were it not for the delay 
in turning on the water, for the men ran faster and apparently 
made quicker couplings than their opponents. Had not 
Hose 5 burst its hose this company would undoubtedly have 
beaten Beverly by two or three seconds. 

The hose-wagon contest was also a thrilling one. The 
companies ran their horses an eighth of a mile, attached 200 
feet of hose to hydrant, and let on water. Hose 1 of Danvers 
did the work in fifty-five seconds, and Hose 3 of Peabody in 
fifty-eight and one-half seconds. 

Danvers gave an exhibition of one-eighth-mile run and 
attaching four lengths of hose. 

Ball Games. 
Large crowds saw the ball games, Monday and Tuesday. 
The Monday game was the " rubber " between Salem and 
Newburyport high schools and was won by the former, by 
the score of 13 to 9. Tuesday's game, between a Danvers 
nine composed of hospital and Ferncroft players and the 
Lynns, was won by Danvers, 13 to 3. 

The Balloon. 

Strong wind made it impossible to inflate the bag. 

When it was believed that the parade would not go to 
Tapleyville it was announced by the chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Athletic Sports that the balloon would go up at the 
corner of Pine and Adams streets. Had not all arrangements 
been made for the balloon at Tapleyville it would have been 
transferred to the Park when the parade went to the former 
place. As it happened, however, it made but little difference, 
for there was no ascension. Aeronaut Patenaude and his 
assistants made every effort to inflate the balloon, but were 
unable to do so on account of the strong wind. Fifty men 
and boys held the bag for an hour while hot air was being 



214 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

created inside, but the canvas swayed and blew and finally 
broke away from the fire pit. Young Patenaude was all 
ready, and intended to try to go up seven thousand feet. He 
weighed but eighty pounds, it is said, and was one of the 
youngest and lightest men in the business. 

Tuesday's Band Concerts. 

The concerts by the Salem Cadet Band, Tuesday afternoon 
and evening on the public square, attracted a large number 
of people. The crowd was orderly and attentive, and fre- 
quently manifested its approval of the band's good work. 
The programs arranged by the leader, Jean M. Missud, were 
as follows : 

June 17, 4 p.m. 

1. March, " Fort Frayne " Farrar 

2. Overture, " North and South " Bendix 

3. Waltz, " Golden Wedding " St. Clair 

4. Selection, " The Strollers " Englander 

5. Old Dance (XVllI Century) Gabriel-Marie 

6. March, '"Yale Boola'" Hirsh 

7. Selection, " The Burgomaster " Luders 

8. Intermezzo, " Salambo " Morse 

9. "ValseBlue" Margis 

10. March, " The Morning Light " Bagley 

Evening, 7.30 to 9.30. 

1. March, " Promenade Militaire " Missud 

2. Overture, " William Tell " Rossini 

3. Song for Cornet, " Soldiers of the King "... Arr. by Keyes 

MR. B. B. keyes. 

4. Waltz, " Obispah " Knight 

5. Selection, " Faust " Gounod 

6. March, " The Admiral " Friedemann 

7. Selection, " Foxy Quiller " de Koven 

8. " American Patrol " Meacham 

9. Intermezzo, " Salome " Lorraine 

10. March, " Invincible Eagle " Sousa 



The Fireworks. 215 

The Fireworks. 

A successful exhibition fittingly closed the celebration. 

That it takes more than a strenuous two days of celebrating 
to exhaust the energy and vitality of the citizens of Danvers 
was amply attested by the immense crowd of people that 
gathered at Danvers Park, Tuesday evening, June 17, to 
witness the closing event of the anniversary, — the exhibition 
of fireworks. It was one of the most elaborate displays ever 
given in this vicinity, and far exceeded anything of the kind 
ever attempted in the town itself. The committee was 
fortunate in securing a very favorable contract with H. H. 
Til ton & Co., of Boston, and the exhibition, which lasted for 
nearly two hours, was made up of sixty-five distinct features as 
follows : Salute of 5 aerial shells, 12 inches, fired from a mortar 
to the height of 500 feet, and exploding with a loud report; 
illumination of grounds with 30 pounds of crimson, white, and 
blue fires; display of 12 of Tilton's special rockets, forming a 
sheaf of wheat effect; flight of 6 rayonnant tourbillions, form- 
ing cascades of fire both ascent and descent; set piece, device, 
motto, "Welcome home, sons and daughters"; flight of 
saucissons with serpents twisting and gyrating through the 
air; salvo of four 15-inch bombs; 3 batteries of colored mines; 
6 rayonnant tourbillions, with wonders of fire; display of ten 
2-pound rockets of rarest hues, lavender and golden-rod, 
light blue and cerise, pink and green, opals and blood-red 
rubies; set piece, device, " The old log-house," a representa- 
tion of the first house built here; salvo of 6 mammoth 
meteors; four 15-inch shells of liquid fire; explosion of four 
jewel mines; 6 rockets; 2-pounder national streamers; 6 
rockets, chromative stars; 6 rayonnant tourbillions with colored 
illuminations; salvo of three 24-inch Tilton's special bombs 
with startling effects, changing to golden hues; flight of six 
15-inch shells; " Star of Danvers," a special device; golden 
cloud, studded with jewels, produced by simultaneous dis- 
charges of 9-inch shells; Tilton's aerial novelties, consisting 



216 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

of hanging gardens, floating festoons of iridescent fires, 
aerial fireflies, national streamers, quadruple shells; all the 
1900 novelties, consisting of thirty-six 2-, 4-, and 6-pound 
rockets and 10-inch shells of various colorings and effects; 
designs representing pearls, jewels, etc.; exhibition of 6 
fountains throwing spray nearly 20 feet into the air; 4 large 
mines of stars and serpents; set piece, device, " The falls of 
Niagara," 30 feet in length, emitting liquid golden spray to 
represent the rush of water at Niagara Falls, the whole piece 
surmounted by batteries of jeweled stars playing upward; 
4 large devils playing among the tailors; salvo of four 18- 
inch shells; 100 torpedoes, flying through the air with great 
velocity; salvo of six 15-inch shells; discharge of two 24-inch 
shells of 4 colors; salvo of 2 repeating shells, red, white, and 
blue; discharge of 20 monster wagglers; display of golden 
cascades; salvo of 100 large exhibition candles; whirlwinds; 
second grand illumination of the whole grounds with beautiful 
variegated fires; display of twelve 4-pound red, white, and 
blue rockets; set piece, device, " The old windmill that stood 
on the hill "; mother of thousand bombs; field of the cloth 
of gold, produced by the discharge of shells, exhibiting gold 
stars and glittering spangles; set piece, 6 by 9 American flag; 
display of red, white, and blue batteries; cascades of jeweled 
fountains; salvo of mammoth meteors; flight of 100 aerial 
saucissons; acres of variegated gems in mid-air; grand finale, 
town seal of Danvers, covering 800 or 900 square feet, the 
whole backed by heavy gerbe cans, ending in national salute. 



Newspaper Comments. 217 



NEWSPAPER COMMENTS. 

(From the Danvers Mirror, June 21, 1902.) 
Chief Bacon engaged Captain BUnn, of Salem, to have charge of 
the streets on Monday. He had a squad of ten Salem officers; there 
were four officers from Lynn, two inspectors from Lynn, and two from 
Boston, and two members of the state force from Boston. These, 
in addition to the regular and special force of the town, ten or a dozen 
men, made good police service. 

The various historic spots in town were plainly designated by con- 
spicuous signs. 

" There are now living at Danvers Centre a number of persons who 
were children here at the time of the one hundredth anniversary of 
the town, in 1852, several of whom took part in the celebration: 
Messrs. Alfred and Warren Hutchinson, George F. Priest, George H. 
Peabody, John Swinerton, William H. Kimball, Albert Mudge, and 
Richard Fuller; Mrs. G. H. Peabody, Mrs. Harriet Preston, Mrs. 
Albert Mudge, Mrs. J. B. H. Fuller, Mrs. Elizabeth Peabody. Loring P. 
Demsey acted as one of the marshals. The day was hot and dusty. 
The children were entertained at lunch by the South Danvers Com- 
mittee. At that time hay wagons were used and were highly deco- 
rated; they would not be out of place in the celebration this year. 
The address was by John W. Proctor, of South Danvers." 

Marcus C. Pettingell entertained Captain Horton and the other 
officers of the Eighth Regiment on his lawn on Franklin Street after 
the parade. It was a fine social occasion. The house was nicely 
decorated, and the following inscription was shown: " To the mem- 
ory of Richard Ingersoll, 1629, who helped build the foundations." 
Mr. Pettmgell is descended from the famous Richard Ingersoll who 
gave the Common at the Centre as " a training-place forever." The 
families of both Mr. and Mrs. Pettingell were present at the reunion. 

A. L. Legro, who drove Oliver Roberts & Sons' team in the 
parade, used as one of the Centre school floats, drove a school float in 
the parade at the one hundredth anniversary celebration. The school 
which he drove fifty years ago was that in the little brick schoolhouse 
on the Danvers and Peabody line. 

Chief Marshal Hussey entertained over one thousand persons in a 
royal manner at his fine residence, " Riverbank." A superb spread 



218 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

was made by Caterer James in a large tent. Military officers were 
entertained in his mansion. 

Mr. Hussey sent out two thousand invitations to personal friends 
to act as aids on his staff, and over six hundred responded, and supplied 
hundreds of saddles for aids who did not obtain them themselves. 

He also assisted liberally in providing means of transportation for 
the children in the public schools. There were forty-two floats in 
all in the procession. 

In the work of arranging the school exhibits the chief marshal was 
ably assisted by W. C. Dunnels, J. M. Whittier, Ralph Wheelwright, 
I. D. Pope, and M. C. Pettingell, and in giving out badges and other- 
wise straightening out the cavalcade, by Capt. C. H. Masury and 
Dr. W. W. Eaton. 

Chairman D. N. Crowley of the Parade Committee wrote a letter 
of thanks to Chief Marshal Hussey, who received numerous other 
letters, gifts of books, and congratulations by letter and telegraph. 

Two sisters, Mrs. Sarah C. Wilkins, seventy-seven years of age, Mrs. 
Emily H. Hutchinson, eighty-one years old, and two brothers, John 
Prentiss, seventy-five years of age, and Henry Prentiss, seventy-nine 
years old, making their ages all together amount to three hundred and 
twelve years, enjoyed a fine dinner Tuesday at the " old homestead " 
at the Centre. 

The Penn treaty, portrayed by the seventh grade of the Maple 
Street School, was splendidly produced, the children as Indians and 
Quakers taking the part admirably. 

Lieut.-Col. Francis Dodge, paymaster's department, U. S. Army, 
visited Danvers and took in the one hundred and fiftieth celebration. 
He also visited friends in Salem. 

Peddlers and fakirs put in an appearance early. Lunch stands, re- 
freshment wagons, merry-go-rounds and other amusement enter- 
prises did an enormous business. 

The D. A. Perley blacksmith shop, drawn by four oxen, with a live 
horse which was aboard being shod, was a unique feature that won 
much favorable comment. 

A beautiful and historic display was made in the window of the 
Misses Fowler's store at the Port, including valuable pictures of great 
age. 



Newspaper Comments. 219 

The Morgan family gave religious addresses and songs to large 
crowds on the Square, Sunday afternoon and evening. 

Chairman D. P. Pope, of the board of selectmen, and Mrs. Pope, 
attended the banquet fifty years ago and were present Monday after- 
noon. 

The United Workmen, American Mechanics, Knights of Malta, 
and various other orders, societies, and organizations, kept open house. 

Mr. and Mrs. Fox as George and Martha Washington were all right, 
and the Symonds outfit of one hundred years ago won well-merited 
applause. 

Companies H, G, and E, Eighth Regiment, were entertained at 
Pillsbury's Hall. 

Ward Post, G. A. R., entertained visiting posts at headquarters. 
The D. A. R. entertained on the roof of the Page house. 

The Indian camp scene of Wenonah council, D. of P., was very 
realistic. 

[Salem Evening News, June 16, 1902.] 

Somebody has said that Danvers wakes up once in fifty years. 
This may not be a base slander, but there is no disputing the fact that 
when she sets out to wake up in dead earnest there is no doubt about 
the result. The celebration opened earlier than was desired or neces- 
sary, but there is no such thing as repressing the desire of the average 
American to be on time, or a little ahead of it in demonstrating his 
love of noise and excitement. Early Sunday crowds began to pour 
into town by every means of conveyance, and by the middle of the 
afternoon the streets were filled. 

[Boston Herald, June 16, 1902.] 
Danvers was the mecca toward which all footsteps in Essex County 
seemed to be turned yesterday. It was the first day of the observance 
of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town. The fame 
of the most beautiful decorations ever seen in this vicinity had spread 
far and wide, and thousands flocked to see them. The street-cars 
went toward Danvers Square from all directions crowded all the fore- 
noon, while carriages lined the road, and wheels filled in the spaces. 
There were stretched across the streets at intervals lines of red, white, 
blue, and green banners, and these colors, mingled with the green of 
the trees, presented a striking picture. A magnificent arch was erected 
over Conant Street, formerly the old Ipswich-Boston road, Saturday, 



220 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 

by Blaney L. Alley, from a fund which he secured for that purpose. 
It is said to be the second largest decorative arch ever seen in New 
England. 

It is estimated that fifteen thousand persons visited Danvers from 
Salem and other places last night, to hear the band concert by the 
Salem Cadet band and see the bonfire. It is stated that over one hun- 
dred electric cars made frequent trips between Danvers and Salem 
and Beverly, and that it would take all night to get the crowds home. 
For two hours preceding the bonfire a band concert was given on the 

park. 

[Boston Herald, June 16, 1902.] 

This is the second day of the celebration of the beginning of the 
town of Danvers. The morning opened very quietly, because every- 
body was out late last night. The bells were rung at smirise for half 
an hoiu-. The work of decorating is still going on. One of the sights 
last night which greeted those who came up by way of Salem was the 
beautiful illumination of the house and grounds of William Penn 
Hussey, who is to be chief marshal of to-morrow's parade. He has 
the large grounds and the street in his vicinity, and even his great 
house, strung with Chinese lanterns in which are electric lights. 
These are lighted at night and produce a wonderfully striking effect. 
This effect is heightened by the trees about the place. 

[Boston Journal, June 16, 1902.] 
The sensation of the opening day of Danvers' one hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary celebration yesterday was Dr. A. P. Putnam's 
vehement attack upon the policy of the government in the Philippines, 
in the course of an historic sermon at Unity Chapel. The church was 
almost oppressively still at times. 

[Boston Herald, June 17, 1902.] 
It is estimated that some 75,000 people visited the town between 
sunrise this morning and midnight to-night to witness the parade, 
sports, fireworks, and then listen to the band concerts, on the occasion 
of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town. Of this 
number fully 7,500 came in private teams, 5,000 on bicycles, thousands 
on foot, and the remainder on steam and trolley cars. Splendid order 
prevailed throughout the day, but as a precaution the local police 
force was augmented by a posse from Salem under Captain George H. 
Blinn and a number of the state force. 



Valuation. 221 

VALUATION. 
The following table, prepared by Daniel P. Pope, chairman 
of the board of selectmen and assessors, shows the valuation, 
polls, and rate of taxation in five-year periods from 1855 to 
date. The valuation of the town in 1854, which was used as 
a basis of settlement after the division, was: 

Danvers $1,444,900 

South Danvers 2,732,600 

Total $4,177,500 



Real Estate. 

1850* $1,777,400 

1855* 2,524,000 

1856 1,134,600 

1860 1,466,550 

1865 1,482,550 

1870 1,747,400 

1875 2,258,600 

1880 2,410,900 

1885 2,588,250 

1890 3,006,900 

1895 3,547,000 

1900 3,882,575 

1905 4,052,375 1,288,905 5,341,280 2,422 18.00 



Danvers. 






Rate of 


Personal Estate. Total Valuation. 


Polls. 


Taxation . 


$1,299,700 


$3,077,100 


1,844 


$7.00 


1,642,800 


4,166,800 


2,012 


10.00 


675,100 


1,809,700 


1,063 


7.80 


839,550 


2,306,100 


1,240 


8.00 


786,075 


2,268,625 


1,143 


14.60 


1,002,500 


2,749,900 


1,306 


14.40 


1,082,500 


3,341,100 


1,455 


15.40 


1,097,225 


3,508,125 


1,501 


13.60 


980,930 


3,569,180 


1,670 


15.00 


893,675 


3,900,575 


1,931 


15.40 


968,395 


4,515,395 


2,090 


17.00 


1,296,980 


5,179,555 


2,183 


14.40 



* Before division. 



222 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers. 



POPULATION FROM EARLY PERIODS. 

We add also this minute relative to population: 
The number of inhabitants within the limits of the present 
town of Danvers in 1672 was probably not much above 350, 
and this was not far from one-fourth of the population of 
the whole town of Salem, to which it belonged at that time. 
(See " History of the First Parish in Danvers," pages 29 and 
159.) The first census of the state was taken in 1765, the 
second in 1776. There is given here the population of Dan- 
vers as returned in those years, and also in the United States 
census for 1790 and for each tenth succeeding year. There 
are added, also, as marking the population at the time of the 
division of the town, and as covering the war period, the 
enumerations by the state census of 1855 and of 1865. 

1765 2,133 

1776 2,284 

1790 2,425 

1800 2,643 

1810 3,127 

1820 3,646 

1830 4,228 

1840 5,020 

1850 8,106 

1855 ^'... 4,000 

1860 5,110 

1865 5,144 

1870 5,600 

1880 6,598 

1890 7,454 

1900 8,542 

1905 9,063 

It took, thus, about half a century to restore the figures to 
the point which they had reached before the division of the 
town. 




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